The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1901-03-02
Copyright 1851. !

Copyright 1871
WASHINGTON, ID. C.-In this discourse
DR.. Talmage describes the gospel net and
how it is to he repaired after being dam
aged; text, Matthew ~, 81. "James. the
son of Zebedee. and John. his brother. in
. ship with Zebcdee, their father, mend
ing their nets
his comrades, and the most OF the apos-
ties had hands hard from fishing tackle.
The fisheries of the world have always at
tracted attention. In the third century
the Queen of Egypt had for pin money
$40. 900 received from the fisheries OF Lake
Moeris. And, if the time should ever
come when the immensely OF the world
population could not be fed by the vege-
tables and meats of the land, the sea has
an amount Of animal life that would feed
all the populations Of the earth and fat
ten them with a food that by its phcspho.
rus would make a generation brainy and
intellectual beyond anything that the
world has ever imagined Ny text takes
us among tine Galiilean 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 to-day we may find some un-
known wealth of thought while looking at
the fishing tackle in the text.
It is not good day for fishing, and
three men are in the boat repairing the
broken fishing nets. II you are fishing
with hook and line. and the fish will
not bite, it is a good time to put the ang-
ler's apparatus into better condition. PEI
haps the last fish YOU hauled in was SO
large that something snapped. o., if You
were fishing with net, there was
mighty foundering Of the scales or an ex-
posed 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 any
thing is more provoking than to nearly
land a score or a hundred Of trophies from
the deep, and when you are in the full
glee of hauling in the spotted treasures,
through some imperfection Of the net
they splash back into the waves. That is
too much OF trial of patience for mos.
fishermen to endure, and many man or
dinarily correct OF speech in such circunl-
stances comes to an intensity OF utterance
man considers the time wasted that is
spent in mending his net. Now, the
Bible again and again represents Christian
workers as fishers Of men, and we are all
sweeping through the sea of humanity
some kind of net Indeed there have
been enough nets out and enough fisher
men busy to have landed the whole hu
man race in the kingdom OF God long be
fore this. What is the matter? The Gcs--
pei is all right, and it has been good
time for catching souls for thousands OF
years. Why. then, the failures? The
trouble is with the nets. and most of them
need to be mended. l propose to show
you what is the matter with most of the
nets and how to mend them. In the text
old Zebedee and his two boys, james and
John, were doing a good thing when they
cat in their boats mending their nets.
The trouble with many Of our net. is
chat the meshes are too large. If 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
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 60 into indulgences and swim all
around Gallilee, from north side to south
side, and from cast side to west side, ex-
pANting 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
W. can, make it impossible for them to
get out. The poor advice nowadays to
many IL. EO anu 10 just DIS Nod lIu W.
fore you were captured for God and heav-
20. The net was not intended to be any
restraint or any hindrancc. What you
did before you were a Christian do now.
90 to all styles Of amusement, read all
the styles of books, engage in all the
styles of behavior as before YOU were con
verted" 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
heaven before we know it are back in the
deep sea Of the world. Oh, when we go
a.sospel fishing, let us make it as easy as
possible for souls to get in and as hard
aspossible to get out.
4 y the Bible language an unmeaning YER
bi6ge when it talks about self denial. and
keeping the body under, and about walk
~ the narrow way, and entering the
straight. gate, and about carrying the
cross! Is there to- be no way of telling
whether man is a Christian except by
his taking the communion chalice on sac
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 Ny disciple
The church is fast becoming as bad as the
world, and when it gets as bad as the
world i will be worse than the world by
20 much, as it will add hypocrisy of a
most appalling kind to it's other defects.
Furthermore, many of our nets are torn
TO- pieces by being entangied with other
nets. 1t is sad sight to see fishermen
hghtlng about sea room, and pulling in
opposite directions each to get his net.
both nets damaged by the struggle and
losing all the fish. In this land, where
there are more than 100000 people,
there are at least 100000 900 not in the
Sunday'schools and churches. In such an
atlantic Ocean of opportunity there is
room for all the nets and all the boats and
al the fishermen and for millions more
There should be no rivalry between
churches. Each one does work peculiar
to itself. But there are cities in this coun-
Try where there is now going on an awful
ripping and rending and tearing of fishing
nets. Indeed, all over Christendom at
TINS time there is great war going on be-
tween fishermen, ministers against minis
tiers.
Now, ], have noticed man cannot fish
and hight At the same time. He either
nes.ects his net or his musket. It is
amazing how much time some of the FISH
elnsn have to ld6k after other fisherne,,.
ltis more than l can do to take care of
my own net. You see the wind is Just
right, and it is such good time for fish
ing, and the fish are coming in SO rapidly,
busy. There 1fe about. 900, ooo. ooot aSns
wanting to Get into the kincdom of CA