Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-07-28
TALMAGE
SERMON
BY Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor of Jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago

a successful fisherman may be utilized
In Christian work. The text is Matthew
~, 10. Follow me, and 1 will make
you fishers of men,"
Are you a fisherman? "Oh, yes" you
answer; 81 have been a fisherman all
my life. AS Izaak Walton, the father
of angling, used to say that true fish
ermen, like poets, were born, not made,
so / was born with love for the rod
and the reel. AS q little boy, many
and many time have 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 l am grown 1 love
to go back to the scene where l was
born. 1 love to wade in the old ia
miliar brook and catch the spackled
trout. l 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
fisherman. A true fisherman is one
whose life employment, not his sum-
mer vacation, Is devoted to catching
fish. You are no more fisherman
than William M. Evarts was farmer.
Mr.. Evarts for recreation used to play
at farming. He used to take the mon
ey which he made as q lawyer in New
York city and put it into his Vermont
Nfarm. 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 entertain
Ing some fellow senators at his farm
he offered them in one hand glass
of milk and in the other a glass of
champagne as he said, "Take your
choice. gentlemen; they both cost me
the same"
There is just 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 a living and the man who
farms for recreation. 1t is the differ
ence between work and play. 1t is the
difference between the man who sets
sail In the fishing smack from Nam
tucket or New Bedford and spends six
foundland. facing the dangers Of tenn
pest and collision, and the man who
paddles about in canoe on a quiet
stream. 1t is the difference between
the man who is ready to defy the dan
gers of Lake Galilee-the most treach-
lrous inland sea in the woodland the
man who stands upon u rock on a SUM-
shiny afternoon and casts his expen-
sive line into the brook for few
hours pastime.
The Fishermen of Galilee.
Now, the two brothers, Peter and An
drew, to whom Christ spoke the words
of my text upon the shores of Lake
Galilee, were real fishermen. They
were not dilettanti. They did not go
out into the country for a few days
with hundred dollar pole to catch a
dollars worth of fish; but they made
fishing their life's business. They be-
longed to what Is perhaps 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
will teach you how you may use your
energy and bravery and conservation
and will make you fishers of men.
Come with me and l will make you
fishers ia the great troubled sea of
humanity and will call you my gospel
fishermen"
The true gospel fisherman is a one
purposed man, whose life is dedicated
IN hn
Every sportsman knows that it is an
tmpossibility for a successful fisher
man 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 con
centrates his entire attention upon his
fsbing and excludes every Other
thought from his brain. Because fish
ing Is so fascinating and absorbing
some of the greatest men of the world
have found their recreation in tn,
sport. Daniel Webster. whom the Mas
sachusetts fishermen used to call Blacl
Dan because he became so sunburne(
when fishing with Seargent S. Prentis
of the shoals of Nantucket. used to for
get his senatorial cares in watching hit
line. Christopher North, the intellec
tual giant of old Scotland. prolonged
his life far into the eighties by hi
habit of running away from Edinburgh
with his rod and reel. Chester A Ar
thur and Grover Cleveland at ever,
opportunity would exchange the com
forts Of the stately White House 70
the absorbing delight of batting a hool
and casting a line.
So a man cannot become a true COS
pei fisherman unless he consecrate
himself, body and mind. and soul. te tn
one purpose OF saving men. He mus
live and eat and breathe and slee
only for the hope of bringing sinfv