St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-03-02

tween churches. Each one does ,
work peculiar to itself. But there ar,
cities in this country where there i
now going on an awful ripping ant
rending and tearing of fishing nets
Indeed all over Christendom at thil
time there is gerat war going OF
between fishermen, ministers against
ministers.
Now, l have noticed a man canno,
fish and fight at the same time. HI
either neglects his net or his musket
1t is amazing how much time some o1
the fishermen have to look after Other
fishermen. It is more than l can d.
to take care of my own net. You see
the wind is just right, and it is such q
good time for fishing, and the fish are
coming in so rapidly that I have te
keep my eyes and hand busy. There
are about 200 900 900 souls wanting tc
get into the kingdom Of God. and it vii
require all the nets and all the fisher
men of Christendom to safely lanc
them. Oh, brethren of the ministry
let us spend our time in fishing In
stead or fighting. But if angrily jerk
my net across your net, and you jerk
your net angrily across mine, We will
soon have two broken nets and no flsh
The French revolution nearly destroyed
the French fisheries, and ecclesiastical
war is the worst thing possible while
hauling souls into the kingdom. My
friends, notice in the text that James,
the son of Zebedee, and John, his
brother, were busy at mending some
body e,se's nets, and rather think that
we who are engaged in Christian work
in this opening century will require
all our spare time to mend our own
nets. God help us in the important
duty!
In this work Of repair we need to
put into the nets more threads OF COM
mon sense. When we can present reli-
gion as a great practically we Will
catch a hundred souls where now We
catch one. Present religion as an in
teIlectuality and we will fail. Out in the
fisheries there are set across the wa
ters what are called gill nets, and the
fish put their heads through the meshes
and then cannot withdraw them be-
cause they are caught by the gills.
But gill nets cannot be of any service in
religious work. Men are never caught
for the truth by their heads; it is by
the heart or not at all. No argument
ever saved a man and no keen analysis
ever brought a man into the kingdom
of God. Heart work, not head work.
Away with your gill nets! Sympathy.
helpfulness, consolation, love, are the
names of some of the threads that We
need to weave in our gospel nets when
we are mending them.
Do you know that the worlds heart
is bursting with trouble and it you
could make that world believe that the
religion Of Jesus Christ is soothing
omnipotence the whole world would
surrender tomorrow, yea, would sur
render this hour? The day before
James A. Garfield was inaugurated as
president 1 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 con-
versation. 1t was just after bereave-
ment, and / was speaking to him from
an overburdened heart about the sor-
row was suffering. Looking at his
cheerf,l face, said: 'Iguess you have
escaped all trouble. / should judge
from your countenance that you have
come through free from all misfor-
tune" Then he looked at me with .
look I shall never forget, and whis-
pered in my ear: "Sir, you know moth
ing about my trouble. My wife has
been in an insane asylum for Is years."
And then he turned and looked out Of
the window and into the night with a
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 in church
has on his soul a weight compared.with
which q mountain is feather. That
woman seated next to you in church
has grief the recital of which would
make your body, mind and soul shud-
der.
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 a soft silken thread Of Chris
tian sympathy. Yea, when you are
your nets tear out those old
threads Of gruffness and weave in a
lew threads of politeness and geniality.
n the house Of God let all Christian
'aces beam with a look that means
welcome. Say good morning" to the
stranger as he enters your pew and at
he close shake hands with him and
Jay: "How did you like the music q
Why, you would be to that man panel |
# the door Of Heaven; you would be to
him a note of the doxology that ser
Lphs sing when new soul enters Heav-
n. have, in other days entered
! pew in church. and the woman
It the other end of the pew looked at |
ne as much as to say: How dare you? |
This is my pew, and I pay the rent for
Ter and made myself as small as pos
ible and felt as though had been
tealing something. So there are peo-
lie who have a sharp edge TO their re-
igion, and they act as though they
hought most people had been elected
o be damned and they were glad of it.
,h, let us brighten up our manner and
ppear in gentlemanliness or lady
ood.
Again, in mending our nets we need
lso to put in the threads of faith and
ear out all the tangled meshes of un-
elief. Our work is successful accord
ng to our faith. The man who be-
ewes in only half Bible or the Bible
d spots, the man who thinks he can
ot persuade others, the man who
alts, doubling about this and doubt
lg about that, will be q failure in
work. Show me the man who
ather thinks that the garden Of Eden
,ay have had an allegory and is not
ute certain but that there may be
mother chance after death and does
ot know whether or not the Bible is
,spired, and I tell you that man for
oul saving is a poor stick. Faith in