The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-03-07

day? May man be as reckless about
his thoughts, about his words, about
his temper, about his amusements
after conversion as before? Alas, the
words of Christ are so little needed
when He said: "Whosoever doth 1T
bear his cross and come after me can
not 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 aud hypocrisy of a
most appalling kind to its other de-
fects.
Furthermore, many of our nets are
torn to pieces by being entangled with
other nets. 1t is a 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 7o,OOo,O0o people, there are at
least 30,000,000 not in the Sunday
schools and churches. In such an At
lantic 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 be-
tween churches. Each one does a
work peculiar to itself. But there are
cities in this country 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 gerat war going on
between fishermen, ministers against
ministers.
Now, l have noticed a man cannot
fish and fight at the same time. He
either neglects his net or his musket.
1t is amazing how much time some of
the fishermen have to look after other
fishermen. 1t is more than l can do
to take care of my own net. You see
the wind is just right, and il, is such a
good time for fishing, and the fish are
coming in SO rapidly that have to
keep my eyes and hand busy. There
are about 2oo,ooo,0OO souls wanting to
get into the kingdom Of God, and it will
require all the nets and all the fisher
men of Christendom to safely land
them. Oh, brethren of the ministry,
let us spend our time in fishing in
stead of fighting. But if I angrily jerk
my net across your net, and you jerk
your net angrily across mine, we will
soon have two broken nets and no fish.
The French revolution nearly destroyed
the French fisheries, and ecclesiastical
war is the worst thing possible while
hauling souls into the kingdom. My
friends, 1 notice in the text that James,
the son of Zebedee, and John, his
brother, were busy at mending some
body else'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 great practically we will
catch hundred souls where NOW we
catch one. Present religion as an in
tellectuality 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 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.
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 Chris
| tian sympathy. Yea, when you are
mending 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 panel
of the door of Heaven; you would be te
him a note of the doxology that ser
apis sing when new soul enters Heav,
en-. I have in other days entered
a pew in church, and the woman
at the other end of the pew looked al
me as much as to say: How dare you
This is my pew, and pay the rent for
it," Well, crouched in the other cor
ner and made myself. as small as pos
sible and felt as though had beer
stealing something. So there are peo
Pile who have sharp edge to their re
ligion, 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 AMI
appear in gentlemanliness or lady
hood.
| Again, in mending our nets we neet
also to put in the threads Of faith ant
| 4aar o,,f oil Tho fapule1 npShpS of nm