Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-01-30
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that / have To keep my eye and hand
busy. There are about 2000o0,000 souls
wanting TO get into the kingdom Of God,
and it will require all the nets and all the
fishermen of Christendom TO safely land
them. Oh, brethren of the ministry, let
us spend orr time IN fishing instead Of
fighting Bat il | angrily jerk my net
| across your net and you jerk yolr net
angrily across mine we wil soon have
two broken nets aud no fish The French
revolution nearly destroyed the French
fisheries. and ecciesIas teal war is the
worst thing possible willie hauling souls
INTO the kingdom. Ny friends. notaae
IN the text that James the son Of Zebt-
dee and John, bis brother, We're busy not
mendng somebody elst.'s nets, bul nlend,
ing Their Own nets, and ] rather think
| that we who are engaged ia Christian
work IN this opening century win require
an our spare time to mend our own nets
Cod EelD us in the important duty.
IN this work of repair we need to put
| into the unts more threads of common
sense. When We can pre- ant religion as
a great practicality we will catch hun
dred souls where now we catch one.
Present religion rs "a intcllectu 'ty anu
we VIII faii Out IN tine iiShei les there
are set across the waters what are called
SUI nets, and the fish put their heads
through the meshes aRd then cannot with
draw them, because they are caught by
! the gills. But gill nets cannot be Of any
service in religious work Men are never
caught for the truth hy their heads: it is
by the heart or not at all. No argument
| Z
| ever brought man into the Kingdom of
''od. 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
weave in our gospel nets when we are
mending them.
The object in fly fishing is TO throw the
| fly far ont and them let il drop gently
| down and keep it gently rising and fall
| ing with the waters and not plunge it like
man-of- wars anchor. and abruptness
and harshness of manner must be avoid
ed in our attempt mt usefulness. | know
man in New Nork who is more sun
| shiny and genial when he has dyspepsia
than when he is not suffering from that
depressing trouble. | have found out his
secret. When he starts out in the morn
ing with such depression. he asks for spe-
cial grace TO keep from swapping mp any.
| body that day and puts forth additional
determination to be kindly and genial
| and by the help of God he accomplishes
| 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 aud the golden threads Of
Christian geniality woven in.
In addition to this we meet 10 lGand 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
Lawrence pike, or an Ohio salmon, or
Long Island pickerel. or Cayuga black
bass, or Delaware catfish, and he does
! that day after day without particular dis
enlargement. But what a lack of pa
thence if we do not Immediately succeed
in soul catching. We are apt to give it
up and say, Il will never try again.
Into all our nets we need to weave all
along the edge and all through the center
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 unbe-
| lief Our work is successful according to
our fai- h. The man who believes in only
! half Bible or the Bible in spots, the
man who thinks he cannot persuade 9TH
ers, the man who halts, doubling about
this and doubling about that. will be q
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
another chance after death and does not
know whether or not the Bible is in
spired, and | tell you that man for soul
saving is poor stick. Faith in God and
in Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost and
the absolute necessity of regenerated
heart in order to see God in peace is one
thread you must have in your mended
net. or you will never be successful fish
err for men. Why, how cal you doubt :?
The rottenest thread to tear out of vour
net is unbelief, and the most important
thread that you are to put in it is faith,
faith in God, triumphant faith, eyerlast-
ing faith.
Mendins the Nets.
Oh. this important work of mending
our nets, If 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 Zebedee
and his two boys mended their nets
where you are. james and J ohm had no
time to go ashore. They were not fishing
for fun, as you and / do in summer time
1t was their livelihood and that of their
families. They mended their nets where
they were--in the ship. oh SAYS some
one. Il mean to get my net mended, and
| will go down TO the public library and
| viii see what the scientists say about
evolution and about the survival of the
fttest,' and | viii read up what the the
ologians say about advanced thought. :
| will leave the ship awhile and | will
go ashore and stay there till my net is
mended." 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 What are
they? do you ask | answer, all you need
you have where You are-namely. Bible
aud place TO pray. The more you study
evolution and adopt what is called ad
yanced thought. tho more useless you
will be. Stay in the ship and mend yoHr
net. That is whore James. the son of
Zehedee, and John, his brother staid.
That is where all who get their nets
mended stay.
| notice that all who leave tie gospel
boat and 80 ashore to mend their nets
stay there Or if tbey try again to fish