Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1901-02-14

wanting to get into the kingdom of God.
fishermen Of Christendom to safely land
them. Oh, brethren Of the ministry. let
is spend our time in fishing instead of
fighting. Bu. if I angrily jerk INV net
across your ne, an you jerk your net an
grlly across mine, we win soon have two
broken nets and no fish,. The French
fisheries, and ecclesiastical war is the
worst thing possible while hauling souls
into the kingdom. Ny friends, notice
in the text that James, the son of Zebe-
dee, and John, his brother, were busy not
mending somebody else's nets, but mendine
their own nets, and rather thir hat
we VINO are engaged IN Christian k in
TINS opening century viii require all our
spare time to mend our own nets. God
help us IN the important duty!
IN tins work OF repair We need to nut
| into the nets more threads of common
sense. When we can present religion az
great practicality we will catch hun
dred souls where we now catch one. Pre-
will fail. Out in the fisheries there are
set across the waters what are called gill
nets, and the fish put their heads through
the meshes and they cannot withdraw
| them, because they are caught by the
g1ils. But gill nets cannot be of any serv-
ACc III Ie1IsiouS WORK men are never
| caught for the truth bys their heads: it il
| by the heart or not at 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, helpful
ness, consolation. love, are the names OF
some of the, threads that we need to
mending them.
| Do you know that the worlds heart is
bursting with trouble, and if you could
make that world believe that the religion
of Jesus Christ is soothing omnipotence
the whole world would surrender to-mor-
row-yea, would surrender this hour The
I day before James A. Garfield was inaugu-
from Richmond to Washington "A gentle
man seated near to me in the cars knew
me, and we were soon in familiar CONVEX
| satlon. 1t was just, after a bereavement,
and was speaking to him from an over
burdened heart about the sorrow was
suffering. Looking at his cheerful face I
said: RI guess you have escaped all trou-
BILE. I should Judge from your counte-
nance that you have come through free
1 from all misfortune Then he looked at
me with look I shall never forget and
whispered in my ear: "Sir, you know moth
ing about trouble. My 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
I was too overpowered to break. That
| was another illustration of the fact that
no one escapes trouble.
Why, that man seated next to you i'm
church has on his soul weight compared
with which a mountain is feather. That
woman seated next to you in church has
grief the recital of which would make
your 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 horsehair
thread of harshness and put in soft
silken thread of Christian sympathy. Yea,
when you are mending your nets tear out
those old threads of gruffness and weave
ity. In the house of God let all Christian
faces beam with a look that means well
come. Say "Good morning to the stran-
ger as he enters yaur 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; you would be to him a note of
new soul enters heaven I have in other
days entered 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 pew and pay the rent for
it," Well, crouched in the other corner
and made myself as small as possible and
felt as though I had been stealing some
thing.
Into all our nets we need to weave all
along the edge and all through the centre
great, long stout threads of Christian pa
tience. How patient God has been with
us! Can we not be patient with our fell
lows?
These dear brethren of all denomina-
tions, afflicted with theological fidgets,
had hottor on fo noudipp Teta 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 Talleyrand to man who wanted
to upset the religion of Jesus Christ and
be crucifed and then raise yourself from
the grave the third day!"
Those who propose to mend their nets
by secular and skeptical books are like q
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 Scott's
nam's "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!
AIdS! ala6! II, WHeu IHc OdtuTOdy uiSHe
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 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 1649, Massaniello, barefooted
: fishing boy, dropped his fishing rod, and
| by strange magnetism took command of
that city of 1000 souls. He took off
his fishing jacket and put on a robe of
gold in the presence of howling mobs. He
; put his hand on his lips as signal and
they were enent. He waved his hand
away from him and they retired to their
| homes. Armies passed in review before
; him. He became the nations idol. The
rapid rise and complete supremacy of that
young fisherman, Massaniello, have no
! parallel in all history. But something
: equal to that and better than that is an
everyday occurrence in heaven. God takes
some of those who in this world were
, fishers of men and who toiled very hum