Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1901-02-07
Dr.TALMAGE SERMON
THE GREAT DIVlNE'S ELOQUENT
MESSAGE.
Subject: With Siiken Cords-So should
the Fishers of Men Mend Their Nets
Christians Warned Against Harsh
Criticisin-GOspel Strife Deplored.
ICoDyriRiit 1901. |

Copyright 1901
WAsHINGToN, ID. C.-In this discourse
DR.. Talmage describes the gospel net and
how it is to be repaired after being dam
aged; text, Matthew iv. q. James, the
son of Iebedee and John, his brother. in
a ship with Zebedee. their father. mend
ing their nets"
ri go a-fshing.''> cried Simon Peter to
his comrades. and the most of the apos
ties had hands nard from fishing tackle
The fisheries of the world have always at
tracted attention. In the third century
the Queen of Egypt had for pin money
$4,000 received from the fisheries of Lake
Moeris. And. if the time should ever
come when the immensely of the worlds
population could not be fed by the vege-
tables and meats of the land, the sea has
an amount of animal life that would feed
all the populations of the earth and fat
ten them with a food that by its phospho-
rus would make d generation bralny and
intellectual beyond anything that the
world has ever imagined. Ny text takes
us among the Galllean fishermen. One
day Walter Scott while hunting in an old
drawer, found among some old fishing
tackle the manuscript of his immortal
book, ''Waverey,' which he had put
away there as of no worth. and who knows
but that to-day we may find some
known wealth of thought while looking at
the fishing tackle in the text.
1t is not a good day for fishing. and
three men are in the boat repairing the
broken fishing nets. If you are fishing
with hook and line, and the fish will
not bite it is good time to put the ang-
Ier's apparatus into better condition. Per
haps the last fish you hauled in was SO
large that something snapped. Or, If you
were fishing with net, there was
mighty laundering Of the scales or an cx-
posed nail on the side Of the boat which
broke some of the threads and let part or
all Of the captlYcs OF the deep escape INTO
their natural element. And hardly any
thing is more provoking than to nearly
land a score or hundred Of trophies from
the deep, and when you are IN the full
glee Of hauling in the spotted treasures.
through some ImperfeCtiOn OF the net
they splash back into the waves. That is
too much Of trial OF patience for most
fishermen to endure, and many man or
dinariy correct of speech in such circum-
stances comes TO an intensity of utterance
unjusti6able. Therefore no good fisher
man considers the time wasted that is
spent IN mending his net. Now, the
Bible again and again represents Christian
workers as fishers of men, and we are all
sweeping through the sea of humanity
some kind of net. Indeed there have
been enough nets out and enough fisher
men busy to have landed the whole hui
man race in the kingdom of God long be-
fore this What is the matter? The gos-
pei is all right, and it has been a good
time for catching souls for thousands of
years. Why, then, the failures? The
trouble is with the nets, and most of them
need to be mended. [ propose to show
you what is the matter with most of the
nets and how to mend them. In the text
old Zebedee and his two boys, James and
John, were doing good thing when they
sat in their boats mending their nets.
The trouble with many of our nets is
that the meshes are too large. IF fish
can get his giis and half his body through
the network, he tears and rends and
works his way out, and leaves the place
through which he squirmed tan@le Of
broken threads. In our desire to make
everything so easy we relax, we loosen, we
widen. We let men after they are once
III the gospel net escape into the world,
and 90 into indulgences and swim all
around Callilee, from north side to south
side. and from cast side to west side, cx-
pecting that they viii come back again.
We ought to make it easy for them to get
into the kingdom of God, and, as far as
we can, make it impossible for them to
get out. The poor advice nowadays to
many is: go and do just as YOU did be
fore YOU were captured for God and heav-
en-. The net was not intended to be any
restraint or any hindrance. What you
did before you were a Christian do now.
Go to all styles of amusement, read all
the styles Of books. engage in all the
styles of behavior as before you were con-
verified" And SO, through these meshes
of permission and Iaxity they wriggle out,
through this opening and that opening.
tearing the net they go, and soon all
the souls that we expected to land in
heaven before we know it are back in the
deep of the world. Oh when we go
a-gospel fishing, let us make it rs easy as
hi tOT lie to Il l~-,,r
as possible to get out.
Is the Bible language an unmeaning YER
blage when it talks about self denial and
keeping the body under, and about walk
ing the narrow way, and entering the
straight gate, and about carrying the
cross? Is there to be no way of telling
whether a man is a Christian except by
his taking the communion chalice on sac
ramental day? May man be as reckless
about his thoughts, about his words, about
his temper, about his amusements, after
conversion as before? Alas, the words Of
Christ are so little needed when He said.
whatsoever doth not bear his cross and
come after Me cannot be My disciple"
The church is fast becoming as bad as the
world, and when It gets bad as the
world it will be worse than the world by
SO much, as it will add hypocrisy of
most appalling kind to its other defects.
Furthermore, many of our nets are torn
to pieces by being entanged with other
nets. 1t Is sad sight to see fishermen
fighting about sea room, and pulling in
opposite directions each to get his net,
both nets damaged by the struggle and
losing all the fish. In this land, where
there are more than 10000, 900 people,
there are at least 30,00OO0O not in the
Suuday-schools and churches In such an
Atlantic Ocean Of opportunity there is
room for all the nets and all the boats and
all the fishermen and for millions more