Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-02-09

TO Dreak. 1ndI was anOIner 1lluSLra-
ton of the fact that no ones escapes
trouble. Why. that man seated next
to you in church has on his soul
weight compared with which a noun
tain is feather That woman seated
next to you in church has a grief the
recital of which would make your body,
mind and soul shudder.
When you are mending your net for
this wide, deep sea of humanity, take
out that wire thread of criticism and
that horsehair thread of harshness and
put in soft silken thread of Christian
sympathy. Yea, when you are mend
ing your nets tear out those old threads
of gruffness and weave in a few
threads of politeness and geniality- In
the house of God let all Christian faces
beam with look that means welcome.
Say good morning to the stranger
as he enters your pew and at the close
shake hands with him and say, How
did you like the music?" Why, you
would be to that man a panel of the
door of heaven; you would be to him
a note of the doxo1ogy that seraphs
sing when a new soul enters heaven.
/ have in other days entered a pew in
church, and the woman at the other
end of the pew looked at me as much
as to say: How dare you? This is
my pew, and 1 pay the rent for iti'
Well, I crouched in the other corner
and made myself as small as possible
and felt as though 1 had been stealing
something. So there are people who
have sharp edge to their religion, and
they act as though 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
gentlemanliness or ladyhood.
Mending the Nets.
Oh, this important work of mending
our nets! 1t 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 John had no time to go
ashore. They were not fishing for fun,
as you and do in the summer time.
1t was their livelihood and that of
their families. They mended~ their nets
where they were-in the ship. 'sOh,"
says some one, s.T nsean to set ny act
mended. and I will go down to the
public library and I will see what the
scientists say about evolution and
about the survival of the fttest,' and
I will read up what the theologians
say about advanced thought 1 will
leave the ship awhile, and 1 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. Bet
ter 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, a Bible and a place
to pray The more you study evolu-
tion and adopt what is called advanced
thought, the more useless you will be-
Stay in the ship and mend your net
That is where James, the son of Zebe-
dee, and John, his brother, staid. That
is where all who get their nets mended
stay.
notice that all who leave the gospel
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 mended, and
you will live to see the day when you
will feel like the man who, having for
saken Christianity, sighed, ''I would
give, thousand pounds to feel as did
in 1920" The time will come when
you would be willing to give a thou
sand pounds to feel as you did in 1901.
These men who have given up their
religion cannot help you a bit
These dear brethren of all denomi-
nations afflicted with theological fid-
gets, had better go to mending nets
instead of breaking them Before they
break up the old religion and try to
foist on US new religion let them
go through some great sacrifice for
God that will prove them worthy for
such a work, taking the advice of Tai
leyrand to a man who wanted to up
set the religion of Jesus Christ and
start a new one when he said, go and
be crucified and then raise yourself
from the grave the third day." Those
who propose to mend their nets by
secular and skeptical books are like a
man who has Just one week for fish
ing, and six of the days he spends in
reading Izaak Walton's Complete An
gler'' and Whealey's Rod and Line
and Scott's Fishing in Northern
Waters and Pullman's Wade Mecum
of Fly Fishing for Trout" and then
on Saturday morning, his last day out,
goes to the river to ply his art But
that day the fish will not bite, and late
on Saturday night he goes to his home
with an empty basket Alas, alas. If
when the Saturday night of our life
drops on us it shall be found that we
have spent our time in the libraries of