Milford chronicle., 1901-02-01

TO ger your net mended, and you VIII i've
to see the day when you will feel like the |
man who, having fOrsaken Christianity, |
sighed, Il would give a thousand pounds |
to feel as l did in 1920" The time win |
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 fdgets,
had better 90 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 u work, taking the
advice Of Talleyrand to a 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 a 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
"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 fundamentally while
some humble gospel fisherman, his libra
~ made up of a Bible and an almanac
shall come home laden with the results
his trophies all the souls within 10 miles
of his log cabin meeting house.
In the time Of great disturbance in Ma
/ pies in 1919 MassaniellO, a barefOOIeC
fishing boy. dropped his fishing rod ant
by strange magnetism took command o
that city of six hundred thousand sous
He took off his fishing JACKET and put ol
a robe of gold in the presence Of howl
ing mObs. He put his hand on his lip a
signal, and they were silent. He wave
his hand away from him. and they re
tired to their homes. Armies passed i
review before him. He became the nJ
tion's idol. The rapid rise and cOmplet
supremacy Of that young fisherman, Mas
saniello, has no parallel in all history
/ But something equal to that and bette
p than that is an everyday occurrence
q heaven. God takes some Of those VIII
in this world were fishers Of men an
who toilcd very humbly, but because {
p the way they mended their nets and en-
o plOyed their nets after they were mende
g be suddenly hOists them and robes the
i and scepters them and crowns them an
d makes them rulers over many cities, an
1t he marches armies of saved ones befOl
q them in review, Massaniellos unhOnOrC
. on earth. but radiated in heaven. II
> fisher boy of Naples soon lost his pOwe
% but those people Of God who have kel
l. their nets mended and rightly swuI
Il them shall never lose their exalted plaC
D but shall reign forever and ever and eve
Il Keep that reward in sight
IN But do not spend your time fishing wi
le hook and line. Why did not James, Il
re son of Zebcdee, sit on the wharf at Can
d his feet hanging over the lake, and with
lie long pole and a worm on the hook Opp
ly into the wave wait for some muliet
d. swim up and be caught. Why did q
u Zebedee spend his afternoon trying
IT catch one eel? No, that work was {
Of slow. These men were not mending
d. hook and line: they were mending TIT
is nets So let the church of God not
content with having here one soul a
'el neN nth another soul brought into I
is kingc PIP all the seas with net.
sh scoop 4.ets, seine nets, dragnets, ~
Of comprising nets, and take the treasm
j" in by hundreds and thousands and Il