Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-02-01

a
rather think that we who are engaged
In Christian work in this opening cen.
fury will require all our spare time TO
mend our own nets. God help us ia
the important dutyl
Need of Common Sense.
In this work of repair we need to nut
into the nets more threads of common
sense. When we can present religion
as n great practicality. we will catch a
hundred souls where now we catch
one. Present religion as an inteliectu-
atty, and we will fail. Out In the FISH,
cries there are set across the waters
what are called gin nets, and the fish
put their heads through the meshes and
then cannot withdraw them, because
they are caught by the gills. But gill
nets cannot be Of any service In reli-
gious work. Men are never caught for
the truth by their heads; IL Is by the
heart or not at ALL No argument ever
saved man, and no keen ANALYSIS ever
brought man into the kingdom OF
God. Heart work, not head work.
Away with your gill netsI Sympathy
helpfulness. consolation. love. are the
names of some of the threads that we
need To weave i'm our gospel nets when
we are mending them.
Do you know that the worlds heart
is bursting with trouble, and IL you
could c;aSe that world believe that the
religion of Jesus Christ is soothing
omnipotence the whole world would
surrender tomorrow-yea. would sur
render this hour. The day before
James y. Garfield was inaugurated as
president was in the cars going from
Richmond to Washington. A gentle
man seated near to me In the cars
knew me, and we were soon In famii-
lar conversation. 1t was just after a
bereavement, and 1 was speaking to
him from an overburdened heart about
the sorrow was suffering. Looking at
his cheerful face, said: 81 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 I shall never forget and wills
pered in my ear: 'Sir, you know moth
ing about trouble. My wife has been
in an insane asylum for 10 years" And
then he turned and looked out of the
window aud into the night with n 81
lence 1 was too overpowered to break
That was another illustration of the
fact that no one escapes trouble. Why.
that man seated next to you in church
has on his soul a weight compared with
which n mountain is a feather. That
woman seated next TO you in church
has n grief the recital of which would
make your body, mind and soul sbud-
der.
The SiIISen Thread,
When you are mending your net for
this wide. deep sea of humanity. take
out that wire thread OF criticism aud
that horsehair thread Of harshness and
put in n soft silken thread of Christian
sympathy. Yea, when you are mend
ing your nets tear out those old
threads of gruffness and weave in
few threads of politeness and genial
ity. In the house of God let all Chris
tan faces beam with look that means
welcome. Say Good morning" TO the
stranger as he enters your pew, aud at
the close shake hands with him and
say, "How did you like the music?"
Why. you would be TO that a man
panel of the door of heaven; you would
be TO him a note of the doxology that
seraphs Stag when new soul enters
heSven. | have In other days entered
n pew in church and the woman Mt tie
other end of the pew looked at me as
much ms to say: "How dare you? This
is my pew aud I pay the rent for itr'
Well, l crouched in the other corner
and made myself as small as possible
and felt as though had been stealing
something. So there are people who
have sharp edge TO their religion. and
they act rs though they thought most
people had been elected to be damned
and they were glad of it. oh. let us
brighten up our manner and appear In
gentlemanllness or ladyhood
The object in fly fishing Is to throw.
the fly far out, and then let it,tirop
gently down and keep IL gently rising
and falling with the waters. and no:
plunge IL like n man-of-war's anchor.
and abruptness and harshness. of man,
ner must he avoided In our attempt Mt
usefulness. / know a man in New
York who IL more sunshiny and genial
when he has dyspepsia than when he
is not suffering from that depressing
trouble. / have found out his secret
When he starts out In the morning
with such depression, he asks for spe-
cial grace TO keep from swapping up
anybody that day, and puts forth addi-
uonal determination to be kindly and
Senial, and by the help OF God he &C.
composites 1t. Many Of our nets need
10 be mended in these respects. the
black threads and the rough threads
taken out, and the bright threads and
the golden threads OF Christian genial.
ity woven In.
In addition to this we need to mens
our nets with more threads OF patience.
IL is no rare thing for fisherman to
spend one whole day before he can
take st. Lawrence pike, or an Ohio
salmon, or Long Island pickerei.- or n
Cayuga black bass, or a Delaware cat.
hsh, and he does that day after day
without particular discoura yement
But what lack of patience IL we do
not immediately succeed in soul catch.
ing. We are apt to give it ND and
say, II will never try again." Into ALI
our nets we need to weave all aron.
the edge and all through the center
great, long stout threads of Christian
patience. How patient God has been
with us! Can we not be patient with
our fellows?
Threads OF Faith.
Again, in mending our nets we need
also TO put In the threads OF faith and
tear out all the tangled meshes of
unbelief. Our work is successful ac-
cording to our faith. The man who
believes IN only half Bible, or the
Bible in spots; the man who thinks
ne cannot persuade others; the man
who halts, doubling about this and
iouDting about that, will be failure
n Christian work. Show me the man
VINO rather thinks that the garden of |
Eden may have been an allegory.