Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1901-01-31
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
CHRISTIAN WORK TYPiFIED BY
FISHERMEN.
ne Gospel Net and How Il should he
Kept In Repair-Chrisrs Disciples rs
Fishers of Men Religion of Christ .
Soothing Omnipotencs.

Washington, Jan. 27.-ln this dis
course DIR. Talmage describes the gos-
pei net and how it is to be repaired
after being damaged; text, Matthew
{: 81, James, the son OF Zebedee. and
John. his brother. in ship with
zebedee, their father. mending their
nets"
81 go a-fishing," cried Simon Peter
TO his comrades. and the most OF the
apostles had hands hard from fishing
tackle. The fisheries of the world have
always attracted attention. In the
third century tine queen of Egypt had
for pin money $4,000 received from
the fisheries of Lake Moeris. And,
II the time should ever come when the
immensely of the worlds population
:ould not be fed by the vegetables and
meats OF the land, the sea has an
amount OF animal life that would feed
all the populations of the earth and
fatten them with food that by Its
phosphorus would make a generation
brainy and intellectual beyond any
thing that the world has ever mag
lned. My text takes US among the
Galilean fishermen. One day Walter
Scott, while hunting in an old drawer,
found among some old fishing tackle
the manuscript of his immortal book,
"Waverley," which he had put away
there as of no worth. and who knows
out that today We may find some I'M
Known wealth of thought while looking
1t the fishing tackle In the text.
Easy to Get In.
The trouble with many OF our nets
Is that the meshes are too large. II
q fish can get his gills and half his
body through the network, he tears
and rends and works his way out, and
leaves the place through which he
squirmed a tangle of broken threads.
In our desire to make everything so
easy we relax. we loosen, we widen.
We let men after they are once in the
gospel net escape into the world, and
go into indulgences and swim all
around Galilee. from north side to
south side. and from east side to west
side, expecting that they will come
back again. We ought to make it easy
for them to get into the kingdom Of
God, and. as far as we can, make II
impossible for them to get out. The
poor advice nowadays to many Is:
go and do Just as you did before you
were captured for God and heaven.
The net was not intended to be any
restraint or any hindrance. What you
did before you were a Christian do
now. Go to all styles Of amusement,
read all the styles of books, engage
In all the styles Of behavior as before
you were converted" And so. through
these meshes of permission and laxity,
they wriggle out through this opening
and that opening, tearing the net as
they 60, and soon all the souls that
we expected to land in heaven, before
we know 1t, are back in the deep sea OF
the world. Oh. when We go a-gospel
fishing. let us make it as easy as posi-
BILE for souls to get In and as hard as
possible to get out.
Is the Bible language an unmeaning
verbiage when 1t talks about self-de-
NAL, and keeping the body under, and
about walking the narrow way and en-
tering the strait gate and about carry
ing the cross? Is there to be no way
OF telling whether a man Is a Chris
tian except by his taking the COM
munion chalice on sacramento day?
May a man be as reckless about his
thoughts, about his words, about his
temper, about his amusements. after
his conversion as before? Alas. the
words of Christ are so little needed
when he said. whatsoever doth not
bear his cross and come after me can
not be my disciple" The church is
fast becoming as bad as the world,
and when 1t gets as bad as the world
II will be worse than the world by so
much. as 1t will add hypocrisy af
most appalling kind to its other de-
fects.
A soothing Omnipoteuce.
Do you know that the worlds heart
Is bursting with trouble and II 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 was In the cars going from
Richmond to Washington. A gentle
man seated near me in the cars knew
me, and We were soon in familiar con-
versation. 1t was Just after q be-
reavement. and was speaking to him
from an overburdened heart about the
sorrow was suffering. Looking at his
cheerful face. said: II guess you
have escaped all trouble. should
Judge from your countenance that you
have come through free from all mis-
fortune" Then he looked at me with
a look shall never forget. and whis-
pered in my ear: "Sir. you know moth
Ing about trouble. My wife has
been In an insane asylum for fifteen
years." And then he turned and looked
out Of the window and into the night
with a silence I was too overpowered
to break. That was another illustra-
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 a 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 horseha.r thread Of harshness and
put In a 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 ofsGod let allsChristian faces