Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-01-30

scribes the gospel net and how it is TO
% be repaired after being damaged; text,
Matthew ~, y. james. the son of Zebe-
dee, and -!5!,n, his brother. i'll ship with
Zebedee, tn iii father. mending their
nets"
II so a fsRing.'' cried Simon Peter to
his contra les and the most Of the apos-
ties had haudy; hand 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 immensely of the
world 5 population could not be fed by
the vegetables and meats Of the land. the
sea has an amount Of asiinai life that
would feed ali the populations of the
earth ands fatten them with a food that
by its Phosphorus would make a genera
ton brainy and intellectual beyond any
thing that the world has ever imagined.
My text takes rs among the Galilean fish
ermen. One day Walter Scott, while
hunting in an old drawer. found among
some old fishing tackle the manuscript of
his immortal book, "Wayerley," which
he had put away there as of no worth,
and who knows but that to-day we may
find some unknown wealth of thought
while looking at the fishing tackle in the
text.
1t is not good day for fishing, and
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 good time to put the an
gler's apparatus into better condition.
Perhaps the last fish you hauled in was
so large that something snapped, or, if
you were fishing with a net, there was
mighty foundering of the scales or an ex-
posed nail on the side of the boat which
broke me 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 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 wave. That is
too much of a trial of patience for most
fishermen to endure, and many a man or
dnarily correct of speech in such circum-
stances comes to an intensity of utter
ance unjustifable. Therefore no good
fisherman considers the time wasted that
is spent in mending his net. Now, the
Bible again and again represents Chris
tian workers as fishers Of men, and we
are all sweeping through the sea of hui
Iaanity some kind of net. Indeed there
have been enough nets out and enough
fishermen busy TO have landed the whole
human race in the kingdom Of God long
before this. What is the matter? The
gospel is all right. and it has been good
time Or catching souls for thousands of
years Why, then, the failure? The
trout se is with the nets, and most of
then need TO be mended. | 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 sat in TIE boat mending their
nets.
Easy TO Get In.
The trouble with many of our nets is
that the meshes are too large. IL 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 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 indulgeuees and swim
all around Galilee, from north size 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 isl Go and do just as
you did before you were captured for
God and heaven. The net was not in
tended to &c any restraint or any hii.
drance. 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 be-
fore you were converted" And so,
through these meshes Gs permission and
laxity, they wrigge out through this
opening and that opening. tearing the net
as they CO. and soon all the souls that we
expected to land ia heaven, before we
know it, are back in the deep sea of the
world Oh, when we go agospel fishing,
let us make it as easy as possible for
souls to get in aud as hard as possible to
get out.
Is the Bible language an unmeaning
verbiage when it talks about self-denial,
and keeping the body under, and about
the strait gate and about carrying the
cross? Is there to be no way of telling
whether a man is a Christian except by
his taking the communion chalice on sac
ramental day? May man be as reck-
less about his thoughts. about his words.
about his temper, about his amusements
after conversion as before? ilas, the
words Of Christ are so little needed when
he said. whatsoever doth not beer his
cross and come after me cannot 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 by
pocr;sy of most appalling kind to it's
other defects.
Furthermore, many Of our nets are torn
to pieces by being eutanged with other
nets. 1t is n sad sight to sec fishermen
fighting about sea room and Pulling in
opposite directions. each to get his me-.
both nets damaged by the struggle and
losing ali the fish. In this land, where
there are more than 10.onoOo9 people,
there are at least 30.G00,00o not n the
Sunday schools and churches. Ia such
an Atlantic ocean OF opportunity there is
room for all the nets and all the boats
and ali the fishermen and for millions
more. There should be 10 rivalry be
tween churches Each one does work
peculiar to itself. Bat there are cities in
this con.,ry where there i now going on
an awful ripping and renting and tearing
g. 8 L. saaHa