Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-02-02
WITH SILKEN CORDS.
so SHOULD THE FISHERS OF MEf
MEND THEIR NETS.

Against Hnrsn triticfh" - hc ~
pIores Dcnominniional Strife In
Gospel Work.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage describes the gos-
pel net and how ii is to be repaired aft
or being damaged; text, Matthew w
81, James, the son of Zebedee, and
John. his brother, In a ship with Zebe-
dee, their father, mending their nets
81 90 a-fshing!" cried Simon Peter to
his comrades, and the most of the apos-
ties had hands hard from fishing tackle.
The fisheries of the world have always
attracted attention. In the third CEN
tury the queen Of Egypt had for pin
money $4,000 received from the fish
cries Of Lake Moeris. And, If the time
should ever come when the immensity
of the worlds population could not De
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 woulu
make a generation brainy and inteliec-
tual beyond anything that the world
has ever imagined. My text takes us
among the Galilean fishermen. one
day Walter Scott, while hunting In an
old drawer found among some old fish
ing tackle the manuscript or MS I'M
mortal book, "Waverley," which he
had put away there as Of no worth,
and who knows but that today we may
find some unknown wealth Of thought
while looking at the fishing tackle In
the text
1t is not n good day for fishing, an1
three men are in the boat repairing the
broken fishing nets. If you are fishing
with a hook and line, and the fish Will
not bite. it is a good time to put the
anglers apparatus into better condl-
ton. Perhaps the last fish you hauled
In was so large that something snap
ped. Or, if you were fishing with
net, there was mighty fioundering OF
the scales or an exposed nail on the
side of the boat which broke some OF
the threads and let part or all OF the
captives of the deep escape into their
natural element. And hardly anything
is more provoking than to nearly land
q score or a hundred of trophies from
the deep, and when you are in the tuii
glee of hauling in the spotted treasures,
through some imperfection of the net
they splash back into the wave. That
Is too much Of trial of patience for
most fishermen to endure, and many
man ordinarily correct of speech III
such circumstances comes to an IN
tensity Of utterance unjustlhaDle.
Therefore no good fisherman considers
the time wasted that is spent in mend
ing his net. Now. the Bible again and
again represents Christian workers as
fishers of men, and we are all sweep
ing through the sea Of humanity some
kind of net. Indeed there have been
enough nets out and enough fisherf- =
busy to have landed the whole human
race In the kingdom Of God long De-
fore this. What is the matter? The
gospel Is all right, and it has been n
good time for catching souls for thou
sands Of years. Why then the failures
The trouble is with the nets, and most
of them need to be mended. propose
to show you what Is the matter with
most Of the nets and how to menu
them. In the text old Zebedee and his
two boys, James and John, were dong
good thing when they sat in the boat
mending their nets.
FnuIt of the Nets.
The trouble with many Of our nets Is
that the meshes are too large. III hsh
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
souirmed 4 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 ana
90 into indulgences and SWIM all
around Galilee, from north side 10
south side. and from east side to west
side, expecting that they will come
back again. We ought to make 1t easy
for them to get into the kingdom or
God. and as far as we can. make IL
impossble for them to get out. The
door advice nowadays to many is: go
and do Just as you did before you were
captured for God and heaven. Inc
net was not intended to be any re-
straint 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 go. and soon all the souls that we
expected to land in hea agen before we
know it are back in the deep sea or the
world. Oh, when we 60 a-gospel fish
ing. let us make it as easy as possible
for souls to get in and as hard as pos
sible to get out.
Is the Bible language an unmeaning
verbiage when it talks about self de-
NAL. and keeping the body under. and
about walking the narrow way, and
entering the str gate and about car
rying the cross? Is there to be no way
of telling whether a man Is a Chris
tan except by his taking the com
munion chalice on sacramental dayF
MAY a 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 not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my
disciple" The church Is fast becoming
as bad as the world, and when 1t gets
as bad as the world it will be worse
than the world by so much. as 1t viii
add hypocrisy of a most appalling kint
to its other defects.
Room For All.