Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-02-01
with YOUR otrl nets. sympathy, nelpml:

make that world believe that the religion /
Of Jesus Christ is soothing competence
the whole world would surrender to-mor-
row-yea, would surrender this hour. Inc
day before James A. Garfield was inaugu-
rated as President was in the cars going
from Richmond to Washington. A gentle
man seated near to me in the cars knew
me, and we were soon in familiar CONVEX
saton. 1t was just after bereavement,
and / was speaking to him from an over
burdened heart about the sorrow l was
suffering. Looking at his cheerful face
said: Il guess you have escaped all trou'
bic. l. should judge from your counte-
nance that you have come through iree
from all misfortune" Then he looked a.
me with look i shall never forget ara
whispered in my ear: "Sir, you know no'n'
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 q silence
/ was too overpowered to break. That
was another illustration OF the fact that
no one escapes trouble,
Why, that man seated next to you N
church. has on his soul weight compared
with which mountain is q feather. mat
woman seated next to you IN church mas
q grief the recital OF which would make
your body, mind and soul shudder. =.
When YOU are mending your net Tor TINS
wide deep sea of humanity, take out that
wire thread of criticism and that horseha;r
thread of harshness and put in SOFT
sillsen thread of Christian sympathy. Yea,
when YOU are mending your nets tear out
those old threads Of gruffness and weave
in few threads of politeness and genial-
ity. In the house of God let all CHRISTIAN
faces beam with look that means wei
come. Say Good morning to the stran,
ger as he enters your pew, ana az the
close shake hands with him and say, how
did YOU like the musieP Why, you would
be to that man a panel OF the door Of Of
heaven; you would be to MN nSee VI
the doxology that seraphs sing when
new soul enters heaven. ! 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 :
| Tbis is nv pew and ] pay the rent for
| III" Well, | crouched in the other corner
and made myself as small as possible and
felt as though | had been stealing some
thing. .h.rr
| edce to their religion, and they act as
thouch they thought most people had been
elected to be damned and they were GLAD
| of it. Oh, let us brighten up our manner
and appear in gentlemaniness OF lauy'
| hood A.,
| Hv far out, and then let 1t drop gently
Down and keep it gently rising ana 1aliihg
with the waters, and not plunge IL like
man-of-war's anchor, and abruptness an u
harshness of manner must be aVoloeu Ill
our attempt at usefulness. " -, :.
|
more sunshiny and genial when he has
dvspepsia than when he is not suffering
from that depressing trouble L nave
found out his secret. When he starts ou
in ths morning with such depression ne
asks for special grace to keep, from snap
ming up anybody that day, and puts, fortf
additional determination to be kindly anc
genial, and by the help of God ne accom-
plishes it. =, :.
MANY of our nets need to be mended, IL
these respects, The black threads ana TN
rough threads taken out, and the prlgn
threads and the golden threads OF CHRIS
tan geniality woven in.
In addition to this we need to mend ou
nets with more threads OF patience. II
no rare thing for a fisherman to spend on
whole dav before he can take st. Law
renee pike. or an Ohio salmon, or a Lon
Island pickerel, or Cayuga black bass
or Delaware catfish, and he does that da
after day without any particular dlscoui
agement. But what lack OF patience
we do not Immediately succeed In sou
catching. We are apt to give it up an
say, II will never try again.
These dear brethren of all denomnd
tions. afflicted with theological Midget:
had better 90 to mending nets instead {
breaking them. Before they break, up tn
old religions let them go through som
great sacrifice for God that will prov
them worthy of such work, taking Tn
advice of Talleyrand to man who wante
to upset the religion OF Jesus CHRIST an
start a new one, when he said, go an
be cruci6ed and then raise yourself 1roi
the grave the third day!"
Those who propose. to mend their IN, ne
| by secular and skeptical books are hke
, man who has just one week tor ns1il
, and six of the days he spends in readlr
|. Tzaak Walton's Complete Angler" an
Wbeatley's "Rod and Line" and Scott
"Fishing in Northern Waters" and Pu
: MANS "Vade Mecum of Fly. Fishing II
| Trout" and then on Saturday mornn
his last day out, goes to the river to p
q his art: but that day the fish will not bit
and late on Saturday night he goes 10 u
; Alasl alas! If, when the Saturday nigl
of orr life drops on us, it shall be four
g that we have spent our time in the llDr
: ries of worldly philosophy. trying to mer
p our nets. and we have only few souls
6 renort as brought to God through our l
/ strumentality, while some humble gosp
i fisherman, his library made up OF BIZ
. and an almanac, shall come home lad
a with the results, his trophies all the sol
q within fifteen miles of his log cabin met
v ing,house. ,.l
Naples in 1919, Massaniello, barefoot
n fishing boy, dropped his ishlns roo, a.
" bv strange magnetism took command
n that CITY of 100000 souls. He took
n his fishing Jacket and put on robe
: cold in the presence Of bowling mobs;
4 nut his hand on his lips as a signal a
- thew were silent. He waved his ma
q, away from him and they retired to tn
70 homes. Armies passed in review bef6
n him He became the nations idol. l
is rapid rise and complete supremacy OF II
i vopno fisherman, Massaniello, have.
q narallel in all history. But somethl
N equal to that and better than that is
,r everyday occurrence in heaven God tai
n. some of those who in this world w
nj fishers of men and who toiled very hu
10 bly, but because of the way they mene
aa9f their nets and employed their. nets at
e. they were mended, He suddenly MOI
IS. them and robes them, and scepters tn tn
and crowns them and makes them rul
n over many cities, and He marches arm
er Of saved ones before them IN IN re h,,e
10 Hated in heaven. The fisher boy of
n oles soon lost his power, but those PEG
81 r God who have kept their nets mene
81 md rightly swung them shall never !
h. their exalted place, but shall reign
", tyer and ever and ever. Keep that rew'
II | In sioht