River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-09-30

be but gloomy weather had we moth
ing else but spring" If you have
been uniformly successful in all your
undertakings, you have not really
been a success. Unless you have
been developed by failure one side
Of your character is still undeveloped.
These thoughts are illustrated by the
dealings of Jesus with the disciples
in the miraculous draught Of fishes.
We have here the good effects Of
failure and the good effects of sue
cess.
ID When it puts us TO preparing
for larger success. The fish were not
running; the wind was in the wrong
direction, or there was something the
matter with the moon; anyway there
were no fish to be caught. They toiled
all night and had caught nothing but
grass and mud The grass and mud
on the net, however, gave them some
thing to do; they were not idle. In
the flowing stream or on the pebbly
beach of the lake they were washing
their nets and preparing for fishing
In the future
Has your health failed? God per-
haps desires to lay you aside for a
while that He may cleanse and mend
the net. He takes the net in hand
in order that we may be c1eansed and
mended for a larger draught of sue
cess in the future. Whatever the
failure, you may prepare, during the
leisure that is given you, for the
larger success in the future.
2. Failure has a good effect when
it leads us to put what remains at the
disposal of Jesus. Peter had no fish,
but the boat was left If he had
caught fish the boat would not have
been clean, but this very failure made
the boat more ready for occupation
and as the crowd presses upon Jesus,
almost pushing Him into the sea, Pc
ter brings the boat around, takes the
Lord in, pushes little from the land
and sits and listens to His discourse
to the people. Put into the hands of
Jesus what remains of the wreck of
faith, of business, of health, or of life,
and He can use it for His glory.
3. Failure has a good effect when it
leads us to do what Jesus commands,
regardless of apparent reasons against
it. Peter thought there was no use
In launching out and casting the net,
but he yielded his own judgment to
the judgment of Christ, submitting his
will to the will of Jesus, and throw
ing the responsibility of success upon
Him. When we pursue that course,
depend upon it, there will never be
real failure. Have you asked God to
give you something which He has re-
fused, in order that He might answer
your real life-motive by clarifying
Himself through giving you something
else? Have you worked for Christ
yeac after year without being able, so
far as you can see, to win any souls
to Him? Have you failed in the pur-
pose of your life to make a large
amount of money with which you
hoped to glorify Him? Do not on that
account cease praying and striving
to win souls, or working. Though you
have faailed, at the command of
Christ cast your nets still farther out
into the deep.
This brings us to
The Good Effects of Success.
1. They caught so many fish that
their nets were breaking and by and
by the boats were sinking. The great
est failures of all the world have been
successes large enough to sink the
boats with men and nets to the bot
tom of the sea. And after we have
succeeded in any undertaking it is
difficult to hold our success 1t is
harder often to keep money than to
make it. Holding the fish in the net
is more difficult than throwing the
net around them.
And this leads us to the second eff
feet of success.
2. The sense of unworthiness. Pc
ter was overwhelmed with a con-
seriousness of sinfulness as he stood
in the presence of this miracle-work-
ing God. Not only the power of Je-
sus, but His purity, in contrast with
Peters weakness and sinfulness, led
him to exclaim, Depart from me, for
l am a sinful man, o Lord" The
tendency of success is to puff us I'D
and make US forget God, who gives
us success. Peter might have said:
"Oh, we might have caught the fish
anyway; the presence of Jesus had
nothing to do with it. We came out
just at the right time" But he did
not say it; he attributed the success
to Christ, and his sense of unworthi-
ness Inundated him before the Lord.
8. The best effect of this success
was promotion. From henceforth
thou shalt catch men," Jesus at once
promoted them from catching fish in
Galllee to catching men in Jerusalem
and in the world; from following a
secular to a sacred employment:
from everyday routine work against
wind and tide to everyday spiritual
work against greater opposition; from
working for money He promoted them
to working for souls. And the climax
of this promotion was the privilege
of sacrificing for Him. They for
sock all and followed Him" Men
who acquire much think they arc sue
cessful.