Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-02-01
WITH SILKEN CORDS.
Or. Talmage Says So Should the Fishers
OF Men Mend Their Nets.
Christians Warned Against Harsh Criticism
Gospel Strife Dep!ored.Worlds hear'
Is Bursting With Trouble.
copyright 1901. ]

WASHINGTON, d. Gin this discourse |
DR. Talmage describes the gospel net and |
how Il is to be repaired after being dam |
aged; text. Matthew iv, q. flames, the
son Of Zebedee, ard John. his brother, in |
a shin with Zebedee, their father, mend |
ing their nets. -, CT: po.ou >,
b;s 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
s47O0 received from the. fisheries OF Lake
Moeris. And, if the time should ever
come when the immensely OF the world
nonnlation could not be fed by the vege-
tables and meats of the land, the sea has
an amount Of animal life that would iced
all the populations Of the earth and tat
ten them with food that by its phospho;;
rus would make generation bralny ana
intellectual beyond anything that the
world has ever imagined. My text taxes
MS among the Galilean fishermen. One
day Walter Scott, while hunting in an old
drawer found among some old hshlng
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 I'M
known wealth. Oh Thought WHY ioohih5 ~
the fishing tackle in the text. -
II Is not a good day for fishing, and
three men are in the boat repairing the
broken fishing nets. If 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. Per-
haps the last fish you hauled in was so
large that something snapped. Or, 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 n score or 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 most
fishermen to endure and many man or
dnariy correct Of speech in such circum-
stances comes to an intensity of utterance
miustiiable. Therefore no good fisher
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 an
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 hui
man race in the kingdom of God long be-
fore this What is the matter? The gos,,
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 good thing when they
sat in their boats mending their nets.
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 renos and
works his way out, and leaves the place
through which he squirmed a tange 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 int, the world
and 90 into indulgences and swim all
around Gallilee, from north side to south
side, and from east side to west side, ex
pecting that they will come back again
I'VE ought to make it easy for them to gel
into the kingdom of God, and, as far az
we can, make it impossible for them tc
get out. The poor advice nowadays t(
many is: go and do just as you did be
fore YOU were captured for God and heav
en-. 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 al
the styles of books, engage in all TIT
STYLES of behavior as before you were con
verified" And So, through these meshe III.
of permission and laxity they wriggle out
through this opening and that opening
tearing the net as they go, and soon al
the souls that we expected to land II
heaven before we know IL are back III tn
deem sea of the world. Oh, when we G
a-aospel fishing, let us make it as easy
possible for souls to get in and az har
as possible to get out.
Is the Bible language an unmeanlng vel
biage when it talks about self denial, an
keeping the body under, and about wall
ing the narrow way, and entering tn
straight gate, and about carrying tn
cross? Is there to be no way OF tellln
whether a man is Christian except b
his taking the communion chalice on sa'
ramental day? May man be as rockies
about his thoughts. about his words, abor
his temper, about his amusements, ate
conversion as before? Alas, the words
Christ are so little needed when lie saiC
"Whosoever doth not bear his cross an
come after Me cannot be My disciple
The church is fast becoming as bad as II
world, and when it gets as bad as II
world it will be worse than the world b
80 much, as it will add hypocrisy OF
most appalling kind to its other defects.
Furthermore many of our nets are tor
to pieces by being entangled with 9TH
nets. 1t is sad sight to see fisherme
fighting about sea room, and pulling
opposite directions each to get his ne
both nets damaged by the struggle ar
losing all the fish. In this land, whe.
there are more than 100000 peopl
there are at least 100000 not in, Il
Sunday-schools and churches. In such {
Atlantic Ocean of opportunity there
room for all the nets and all the boats al
all the fishermen and for millions nor
There should be no rivalry betwe'
churches. Each one does work peculi
to itself. But there are cities in this cou
try where there is now going on an avn
ripping and rending. and tearing OF bshl
nets. Indeed, all over Christendom
this time there is great war going on
tween fishermen, ministers against MN
tiers.
Now, I have noticed a man cannot i
and fight at the same time. He eth
neglects his net or his musket. 1t
amazing how much time some of the lis
ermen have to look after other fisherme
II is more than I can do to take care
nv own net. You see the wind is j
right, and it is such good time for fi'
ing and the fish are coming in so RAPID
that l have to keep my eye and ha
busy. There are about 200,000,OOO So
wanting to get into the kingdom of Gt
and II will reouire all the nets and all