The semi-weekly messenger., 1901-02-08

net, or you Will never De SucceSSfni 1Sn-
er for men. Why, how can you doubt
The rottenest thread to tear out of your
net is unbelief, and the most important
thread that you are 10 put In it is faith
faith in God, triumphant faith, everlast-
ing faith.
Mendfng the Nets.
Oh, this important work Of mending
our nets. II we could get our nets right,
we would accomplish more in soul saving
in the next year than We have in the last
20 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 60 ashore. They were not fishing for
fun. as you and 1 do in summer time
1t was their livelihood and that of their
families. They mended their nets where
they were-in the ship. oh" says some
one, II mean TO get my net mended, and
I will go down to the public library and
/ will see what the scientists say about
evolution and about the survival Of the
fttest,' and / will read up what the the
ologians say about advanced thought
/ will leave the ship awhile, and will 90
ashore and stay there till my net is mend
ed" Do that, my brother, and you will
have no net left. Instead of their help
ing you mend your net, they will steal
the pieces that remain. Better stay in
the gospel boat, where you have all the
means for mending your net. What are
they? do you ask. l answer, ali you need
you have where you are-namely, a Bible
and place to pray. The more you study
evolution and adopt what is called ad-
vanced thought, the more useless you
will be. Stay in the ship and mend your
Zebedee. 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 forsaken Christianity,
sighed, 81 would give a thousand pounds
to feel as 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.
These dear brethren of all denomina-
tions, afflicted with theological fidgets.
had better go to mending nets instead of
breaking them. Before they break up
the old religion and try to foist on US a
new religion let them go through some
great sacrifice for God that will prove
them worthy for such a work, taking the
advice of Talleyrand to man who want
ed to upset the religion Of Jesus Christ
and start a new one when he said, Go
and be crucifed and then raise yourself
from the grave the third day. Those
who propose to mend their nets by secu-
lar and skeptical books are like man
who has just one week for fishing, and
six of the days he spends in reading Izaak
Walton's Complete Angler and Wheat
ley's "Rod and Line" and Scott's Fish
ing In Northern Waters" and Pullman's s
"Vade 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 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 worldly phi
losophy, trying to mend our nets, and we
have only few souls to report as brought
to God through our instrumentality while
some humble gospel fisherman, his libra
~ made up of Bible and an almanac,
shall come home laden with the results,
his trophies all the souls within Is miles
of his log cabin meeting house.
In the time of great disturbance in Ma
piles in 1649 Massaniello, a barefooted
fishing boy, dropped his fishing rod and
by strange magnetism took command of
that city of six hundred thousand souls.
He took off his fishing jacket and put on
ha Of in, he Of l.
ing mobs. He put his hand on his lip as
a signal, and they were silent. He waved
his hand away from him. and they re-
tired to their homes. Armies passed in
review before him. He became the ma
tons idol. The rapid rise and complete
supremacy of that young fisherman, Mas
saniello. has no parallel in all history.
But something equal to that and better
than that is an everyday occurrence in
heaven. God takes some of those who
in this world were fishers of men and
who toiled very Eurnbly. but because of
the way they ,lenGed their nets and en-
ployed their nets after they were meDdc.l
he suddenly - sts :hcm and robes them
and sCepteiS =, ar crowns them N
makes them ri:!e.s, over many cities, an
he marches armies Of saved ones berJ.e
them in review. niassaniellos unhono 4
on earth. but r>:diated in heaven. The
fisher boy of Naples soon lost his power.
but those people of God who have kCp.
their nets mended and rightly swun.
them shall never lose their exalted place,
but shall reign forever and ever and ever
| Keep that reward in sight.
But do not spend you; 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 a
| long pole and worm on the hook dipped
| into the wave wait for some mullet to
swim up ana 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 a
hook and line; they were mending their
| nets. So let the church Of God not be
content with having here one soul and
next month another soul brought into the
kingdom. Sweep all the seas with nets
scoop nets, seine nets, dragnets, all en-
Al Al