The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-03-07
NO. 2.

quite certain but that there may be
another chance after death and does
not know whether or not the Bible is
inspired, and l 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 a
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 fisher for men. Why,
how can you doubt? The rottenest
thread to tear out of your net is unbe-
lief, and the most important thread
that you are to put in it is faith-faith
in God, triumphant faith, everlasting
faith.
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 20. Blu where shall we
get them mended? just where old Z0b-
edee and his two bo,ys mended their
nets-where you are. James and john
had no time to go ashore. They were
not fishing for fun, as you and do
in summer time. 1t was their liveli-
hood and that of their families They
mended their nets where they were
in the ship. "Oh," says some one, 81
mean to get my net mended, and will
go down to the public library and
will see what the scientists say about
evolution and about the survival of the
fittest, and I will read up what the
theologians say about advanced
thought I will leave the ship awhile.
and I will go ashore and stay there
till my net is mended." Do that, my
brother, and youwil have no net left. In
stead of their helping you mend your
net, they will steal the pieces that re-
main. Better stay in the Gospel boat,
where you have all the means for mend
ing your net. What are they? do you
ask. l answer, all you need you have
where you are-namely, Bible and
plac. to pray. The more you study
evolution and adopt what is called adj
will be. Stay in the ship and mend
your net. That is where James, the
son of Zebedee, and John, his brother,
staid. That is where all who get their
nets mended stay.
1 notice that all who leave the Cos
pei boat and go ashore to mend their
nets stay there. Or if they try again
to fish they do not catch anything.
Get out of the Gospel boat and go up
into the world to get your net mend
ed, and you will live to see the day
when you will feel like the man who,
ing forsaken Christianity, sighed: 81
would give thousand pounds to feel
as I did in 1920" The time will come
when you would be willing to give a
thousand pounds to feel as you did in
1901. These men who have given up
their religion cannot help you bit.
In the time of great disturbance in
Naples in 1649 Massaniello, a barefoot
ed fishing boy, dropped his fishing rod
and by strange magnetism took COM
mand of that city of 100000 souls. He
took eff his fishing jacket and put on a
robe of gold in the presence of bowling
mobs. He put his hand on his lip as
q signal, and they were silent. He
waved his hand away from him, and
they retired to their homes. Armies
passed in review before him. He be-
came the nations idol. The rapid rise
and complete supremacy of that young
fisherman, Massaniello, has no parallel
in all history. But something equal to
that and better than that is an every
day occurrence in Heaven. God takes
some of those who in this world were
fishers of men and who toiled very
humbly, but because of the way they
mended their nets and employed their
nets after they were mended He sud-
denly hoists them and robes them and
scepters them and crowns them and
makes them rulers over many cities.
But do not spend your time fishing
with hook and line. Why did not
James, the son of Zebedee, sit on the
wharf at Cana, his feet hanging over
the lake, and with long pole and
worm on the hook dipped into the wave
wait for some mullet to swim up and
be caught? Why did not Zebedee
spend his afternoon trying to catch one
eel? No, that work was too slow.
These men were not mending hook
and line; they were mending their
| nets. So let the church of God not ba
content with having here one soul ana
next month another soul brought into
the kingdom. Sweep all the seas with
nets-scoop nets, seine nets, dragnets.
all encompassing nets, and take tho
| treasures in by hundreds and thou.
| sands and millions, and nations will be
born in day and the hemispheres
| quake with the tread of ransoming
God. Do you know what will be the
/ two most tremendous hours in our
Heavenly existence? Among the quad !.
rillions of ages which shall roll on
what two occasions will be to US the
greatest? The day of our arrival there
will be to us one of the two greatest.
The second greatest, / think. will be
the day when we shall have put in
parallel lines before US what Christ did
| for us and what we did for Christ, the
one so great, the other SO little. That
will be the only embarrassment. in
Heaven. My Lord and my God. What
will we do and what will we say when
| IN one side are placed the Saviour i