St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-03-02
COVINGToN ST TAMMANY PARISH, SATURDAY,
MENDING THE NETS.

| MENDING THE NETS
Dr.. 1almage breaches q Sermon o.
the Story Of the Fishermen.
Christ's Disciples ~ F1shers Of Ne,
-The Gospel Net aad How 1t
should Ne Kept In
Repair.
copyright. 1901. by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington.
In this discourse DIR. Talmage de.
scribes the Gospel net and how it is tc
be repaired after being damaged;
text, Matthew 4:21, James, the SON Of
Zebedee, and John, his brother, in q
ship with Zebedee, their father, mend
ing their nets"
Il 60 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 s47O.OOO. received from
the fisheries of Lake Moeris. And, ii
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 population of the earth and fat
ten them with q food that by its phos-
phorus would make generation
brainy and intellectual beyond any
thing that the world has ever imag-
ined. My text takes us among the Cali
lean 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 look
ing at the fishing tackle in the text.
1t is not a good day for fishing. and
three men are in the boat repairing
the broken fishing nets. II you are
fishing with a hook and line. and the
fish will not bite, it is good time 10
put the anglers apparatus into better
condition. Perhaps the last fish you
hauled in was SO large that something
or, if you were fishing with a
net, there was mighty fioundering
of the scales or an exposed 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 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 trial of
patience for most fishermen to endure.
and many a man ordinarily correct Of
speech in such circumstances comes to
an intensity of utterance unjustifiable.
Therefore no good fisherman consid-
ers the time wasted that is spent in
mending his net. Now, the Bible again
and again represents Christian work
ers 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 fish
ermen 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
a good time for catching souls for thou
sands Of years. Why, then, the fail
ares? The trouble is with the nets.
and most of them need to be mended.
propose to show you what is the mat
ter with most Of the nets and how to
mend them. In the text old Zebedee
and his two boys. James and John,
we're doing good thing when they sat
n the boat mending their nets.
The trouble With many OF our nets
3 that the meshes are too large. If
fish can get his gills and half his
body through the network. he tears
ind rends and works his way out, and
caves the place through which he
'quirmed tangle of broken threads.
n our desire to make everything so
'asy we relax, we loosen, we widen,
We let men after they are once in
he Gospel net escape into the world,
ind 60 into indulgences and swim all
lround Galilee, from north side to
outh side, and from east side to west
ide, expecting that they will come
'ack again. We ought to make it easy
or them to get into the Kingdom Of |
iod, and. as far as we can, make it |
impossible for them to get out. The
'oor advice nowadays to many is:
Go and do just as you did before you
we're captured for God and Heaven.
The net was not intended to be any
or any hindrance. What you
i'd before you were a Christian do
ow. Go to all styles Of amusement,
cad all the styles Of books. engage
n all styles of behavior as before you
rere converted" And SO, through
hese meshes of permission and laxity,
hey wriggle out through this open
ng and that opening, tearing the net
5 they 60. and soon all the souls that
'e expected to land in Heaven, be-
ore We know it, are back in the deep
ca of the world. Oh, when we 20
Gospel fishing. let us make it as easy
$ possible for souls to get in and as
ard as possible to get out.
Is the Bible language an unmeaning
erbiage when it talks about eelf-de-
ial, and keeping the body under and
bout walking the narrow way and
ntering the strait gate and about
arrying the cross? Is there to be no
-ay Of telling whether a man is
hristian except by his taking the
chalice on sacramental
ay? May a man be as reckless about
is thoughts, about his words, about
is temper, about his amusements
fter conversion as before? Alas, the
ords OF Christ are SO little needed
hen He said: "Whosoever doth not
ear his cross and come after me can
OF be my disciple" The church is
lst becoming as bad as the world,
nd when it gets as bad as the world
will be worse than the world by so