The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-08-03
DIR /.

/
Rev. Frank De Witt Talmage shows how
the qualities which characterize a sue
eessful fisherman may be utilized in
1 chrictian work. The text is Matthew
~ 49, Follow me, and 1 will make you
fishers of men,.
Are you q fisherman2 oh yes" you
answer; II have been a fisherman all
my life. As Izaak Walton, the father Of
angling, used to say that true fishermen,
like poets were born, not made, SO I was
born with love for the rod and the
reel. AS a little boy, many and many a
time have l been late for school because
] loitered on the way under the shadow
of the old wooden bridge to cast a
crooked pin used for a hook. Now that I
am grown l love to go back to the scene
where 1 was born. l love to wade in the
old familiar brook and catch the speckled
trout love to take a boat and pull out
into the river which flows through the
valley where my father is buried and try
TO coax to my hook the black bass and
the timid perch"
No, my friend, you are not true fish
erman. No true fisherman is one whose
life employment, not his summer yaca-
ton, is devoted TO catching fish, You are
no more a fisherman than William M.
Evarts was a farmer. Mr.. Evarts, for
recreation, used to play at farming. He
used to take the money which he made
as a lawyer in New York city and put it
into his Vermont farm. But Mr.. Evarts
never made a living off his Vermont
farm. Farming was such an expensive
luxury to him that one day while he
was entertaining some fellow senators
at his farm he offered them in one hand
glass of milk and in the other glass
| of champagne as he said, take your
choice gentlemen; they both cost me the
same"
There is lust as much difference be-
| tween the man who makes his living
by fishing and one who fishes for sport as
| there is between the man who farms TO
make living and the man who farms for
| recreation 1t is the difference between
work and play. 1t is the difference be-
tween the man who sets sail in the fish
ing smack from Nantucket or New Bed
ford and spends six long months OH the
banks of Newfoundland, facing the dan
gers of tempest and collision, and the.
man who paddles about in a canoe on
quiet stream. 1t Is the difference be-
Tween the man who is ready to defy
the dangers of Lake Galilee-the most
treacherous inland sea in the world-and
man who stands upon the rock on
sunshiny afternoon and casts his expen-
slve line into the brook for few hours
past time.
The Fishermen of GaliIee.
Now, the two brothers, Peter and An
drew, to whom Christ spoke the words
of my text upon the shores of Lake CAL
lice, were real fishermen. They were not
dilettanti. They did not go out into the
country for few days with hundred
dollar pole to catch a dollars worth Of
fish, but they made fishing their life
business. They belonged to what is per-
haps the bravest class of men on earth
the fishermen. Christ, when he saw them
mending their nets, turned and said;
Come, leave your nets and follow me-
Give up your work of catching fish and
l will teach you how you may use your
energy and bravery and conservation ana
will make you fishers of men. Come with
me and l will make you fishers in the
great troubled sea of humanity and Will
call you my gospel fishermen"
The true gospel fisherman is one pur-
posed man, whose life is dedicated to the
single object of saving souls. Every
sportsman knows that ii Is an impossi-
| bility for a successful fisherman to think
of anything else but his fish at the time
of fishing. He cannot plan about business
and attend to his line. He cannot read
book and watch his bait. He cannot
dream of the woods and troll at the same
time. When a real fisherman fishes, he
concentrates his entire attention upon his
fishing and excludes every other thought
from his brain. Because hshing Is SO
fascinating and absorbing, some OF the
greatest men in the world have found
their recreation In the sport Daniel
Webster whom Massachusetts fishermen
used to call Black Dan, because he be
came so sunburned when fishing with
Seargent S. Prentiss off the shoals OF
Nantucket, used to forget his senatorial
IN, ChriStOnher
North, the intellectual giant OF old Scot
land prolonged his life far into the
eighties by his habit of running away
from Edinburgh with his rod and reel.
Chester A. Arthur and Grover Cleveland
at every opportunity would exchange the
comforts of the stately White House Tor
the absorbing delight of batting hook
and casting a line.
So a man cannot become a true gospel
fisherman unless he consecrateS himself
body and mind and SOUL to the one pur-
pose of saving them. He must live and
eat and breathe and sleep only for the
hope of bringing sinful men and women
to Christ He must be as deeply alb
sorbed In the work of saving souls as was
John Knox, who used to rise frequently
in the middle of the night to pray. And
one night while he was pleading with
God to help him In the work OF SAVING
souls, his wife chided him and told him
to come back to bed The great reformer
turned and said Woman, how can 1
sleep when my country is not saved!
Then he cnotinued his supplications with
this earnest cry: "oh God, give me Scot
land or i die!
Put Your Mind Into the Work.
Never was l more impressed with the
thought that in order to be true gospel
fishermen a man must surrender himself
| body mind and soul, to the Masters SER
vice than when some years ago l went
with a party of gentlemen fishing for At
| lantic founders. At that time l was not
much of a fisherman. l was so absorbed
| in the beauties of nature that when l
| threw out my line / would forget all
| about it. and the fish would come and
nibble off the bait and swim away. In
the meantime l was admiring the curying
waves I was watching the winds pile
up the clouds into mountains and domes
and arches and fortresses and obelisks;
[ was watching the sea gulls take their
morning baths swoop down to catch a
fish in their talons, and then with wild
cry start away for the nests where their
young were clamoring for food And as
/ watched those sea gulls my mind wan
dered on and 1 solloquized What If
death had slain my father and mother
when / was young just as cruel sports
men for mere sport might shoot yonder
bird? Would then have died as the
bird fiedgelings would die of starvation
or would l have lived to grow up a
Christian man or have fallen into crime
and finally been put behind iron bars as
a convict? And thus I dreamed the whole
1ff.t,1x