The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-02-13
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE Blythe NOTED
DIVINE,
Subject: With Silken Cords-So Should
the Fishers OF Men Mend Their Nets
Christians Warned Against Harsh
Criticism-GospeI Strife Deplored.
tCopyTight laQl,1

Criticism-GospeI Strife Deplored.
tCopyrght 1so1l
WASHINGTON, D. C-In this discourse
| DR.. Talmage describes the gospel net and
how it is to be repaired after being dam
aged; text, Matthew iv, 81. James, the
son of Zebedee, and John. his brother, in
a ship with Zebedee, their father, mend
ing their nets"
'rI 60 a-fshing!" cried Simon Peter to
his comrades, and the most Of the apos-
ties had hands hard from fishing tackle.
The fisheries Of the world have always at
tracted attention. In the third century
s470, 900 received from the fisheries nf Lake
Moeris. And, if the time should ever
come when the immensely Of the world 8
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 food that by its phospho:.
rus would make a generation brainy and
intellectual beyond anything that the
world has ever imagined. My text takes
us among the Galliean fishermen. One
day Walter Scott, while hunting in al. old
drawer, found among some old fishing
book, "Waverley," which he had put
away there as of no worth, and who knows
but that to-day we may find some un-
| known wealth of thought while looking at
the fishing tackle in the text. =,
1t is not good day for fishing, and
three men are in the boat repairing. the
| broken fishing nets. If You are. fishing
with a hook and line. and the fish will
not bite, it is good time to put the ang-
ler'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 foundering Of the. scales or an eT-
posed nail on the side of the boat which
broke some of the threads and let part or
all of the captives of the deep escape into
their, natural element. And hardly any,
thing is more provoking than to nearly
land 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
dinarily correct of speech in such crcum-
stances comes to an intensity of utterance
unjustifable. 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 hu-
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. I propose to show
you what is the m"ster with most of the
nets and how to mend tn EN-. In the text
old Zebedee and his two boys, James and
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 gills and half his body through
the network, he tears and rends and
works his way ont, and leaves the place
through which he squirmed a tangle of
broken threads. In our desire to make
everything so easy we relax, we loosen, we
widen. We let men after they. are once
in the gospel net escape into the world.
and 60 into indulgences and swim all
around Gallilee, from north side to south
side, and from east side to west side, ex-
pecting that they will come back again.
We ought to make it easy for them to get
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 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-
verted." And so, through these meshes
Of permission and laxity they wriggle out,
through this opening and that opening:
tearing the net as they go, and soon all
the souls that we expected to land in
heaven before we know it are back in the
deep sea of the world. Oh, when we go
a-gospel fishing, let W make it as easy as
possible for souls to get in and as hard
as possible to get out.
Is the Bible language an unmeanlng YER
biage 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 SIC
ramental day? May a man be as reckless
about his thoughts, about his words, about
his temper, about his amusemcnts, after
Christ are so little needed when He said,
"Whosoever 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 as 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 entang!ed 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 70,0OO,0OO people,
there are at least 3O,0OO,OOO not in the
Sunday-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
There should be no rivalry between
churches. Each one does a work peculiar
to itself. But there are cities in this coun-
try where there is now going on an awful
ripping and rending and tearing of fishing
nets. Indeed, all over Christendom at
this time there Is great war going on be-
tween fishermen, ministers against minis
ters.
Now, I have noticed a man cannot fish
and tight at the same time. He either
neglects his net or his musket. 1t is
amazing how much time some of the fish
ermen have to look after other fishermen.
1t is more than can do to take care of
my own net. You see the wind is just
right, and it is such a good time for fish
ing, and the fish are coming in so rapidly.
| that l have to keep my eye and hand
busy There are about 200000,OO0 souls
wanting to get into the kingdom of God.
and it will require all the nets and all the
| fishermen of Chr:stendom to safely land
them. Oh, brethren of the ministry, let
us spend our time in fishing instead of
fighting But if I angrily jerk my net