Marshall County independent., 1901-02-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
CHRISTIAN WORK TYPIFIED BY
FISHERMEN.
The Gospel Net and How II Should Be
Kept I'm Repair-Chrisrs Disciples as
Fishers OF Men-Religion OF Christ a
Soothing Omnipotence.

Soothing Omnipotence.
Copyright. 1901. by Louis Klopsch. n. -
Washington, Jan. 27.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage describes the gos
pei net and how it is to be repaired
after being damaged; text, Matthew
4: 81, James. the son Of Zebedee, and
John, his brother, in ship with
,ebedee, their father. mending their
nets"
Il 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 the queen of Egypt had
for pin money $4,000 received from
the fisheries of Lake MOeris. And,
IL the time should ever come when the
immensity of the worlds population
could 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 a food that by its
phosphorus would make a generation
brainy and intellectual beyond any
thing that the world has ever mag
ined 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
but that today we may find some un-
known wealth of thought while looking
at 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
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
so 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 it
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 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 ali the souls that
we expected to land in heaven, before
we know it, are back in the deep sea of
the void. Oh, when we go a-gOSpel
fishing. let us make it as easy as possi-
BILE for souls to get in and as hard as
possible to get out
Is the Bible language an unmeaning
verbiage when it talks about self-de-
nial, 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 man is Chris
tian except by his taking the COM
munion chalice on sacramental day?
MAY 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. ''Whosoeyer 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 it gets as bad as the world
it will be worse than the world by so
much. as it will add hypocrisy af a
most appalling kind to its other de-
fects.
A soothing Cmnipotence.
Do You know that the worlds heart
is bursting with trouble and if you
could make that world believe that the
religion Of Jesus Christ is a soothing
omniDotence, 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 i'll the cars knew
me, and we were soon in familiar con-
versation. 1t was just after a be-
reavement. and | was speaking to him
from an oyerburdened heart about the
sorrow was suffering. Looking at his
cheerful face. said: Il 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 l 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 was too overpOwered
to break. That was another illustra-
tion of the fact that no ones escapes
trouble. Why, that man seated next
| to you in church has on his soul a
weight compared with which a noun
tain Is feather That woman seated