iimiJiiPiiilliifct^''"^^ 
 
Fishing for Men 
 
 J. WILBUR CHAPMAN, D. D, 
 
 v§ 
 
 ^s 
 
 Chicago 
 
 THE WINONA PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1904 
 
COPYRIGHT 1904 
 
 BY 
 
 THE WINONA PUBUSHING COMPANY. 
 
To My Father 
 
 A Christian Gentleman, an Ideal Father 
 and a Priest in his Household. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. 
 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Art of Fishing 
 
 I 
 
 II. 
 
 Organizations for Men 
 
 '3 
 
 III. 
 
 A Fascinating Work 
 
 21 
 
 IV. 
 
 An Easy Work .... 
 
 32 
 
 V. 
 
 Personal Evangelism for Men . 
 
 4.0 
 
 VI. 
 
 How Some Men Have Been Won to 
 
 
 
 Christ ..... 
 
 50 
 
 VII. 
 
 A Word with the Head of the House 
 
 60 
 
 VIII. 
 
 A Never Failing Principle 
 
 69 
 
 IX. 
 
 A Startling Statement 
 
 82 
 
 X. 
 
 A Message to Men on the Grace of 
 
 
 
 God 
 
 95 
 
 XI. 
 
 A Church for Men 
 
 106 
 
 XII. 
 
 Dr. Munhall's Message . 
 
 123 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The White Life . . . . 
 
 134 
 
 XIV. 
 
 A Fatal Mistake .... 
 
 154 
 
 XV. 
 
 An Old Love Story 
 
 173 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Life or Death .... 
 
 i8q 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
CHAPTER FIRST. 
 
 THE ART OF FISHING. 
 
 Concerning the art of fishing Dr. Henry van 
 Dyke, that successful fisherman, distinguished au- 
 thor, and great preacher, has said : "The attraction 
 of angHng for all the ages of man from the cradle 
 to the grave lies in its uncertainty. 'Tis an affair of 
 luck. No amount of preparation in the matter of 
 rods and lines and hooks and lures and nets and 
 creels can change its essential character. No excel- 
 lence of skill in casting the delusive fly or adjusting 
 the tempting bait upon the hook can make the re- 
 sult secure. You may reduce the chances but you 
 cannot eliminate them. There are a thousand points 
 at which fortune may intervene. The state of the 
 weather, the height of the water, the appetite of the 
 fish, the presence or absence of other anglers enter 
 into the reckoning of your success. When you go 
 a-fishing you just take your chances. You offer 
 yourself as a candidate for anything that may be go- 
 ing; you try your luck. 
 
 "There are certain days that are favorites among 
 anglers, who regard them as propitious for the sport. 
 I know a man who believes that the fish always rise 
 better on Sunday than on any other day in the week. 
 He complains bitterly of this supposed fact, because 
 his religious scruples will not allow him to take 
 advantage of it. He confesses that he has some- 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 times thought seriously of joining the Seventh-Day 
 Baptists. 
 
 "But in fact, all these superstitions about fortunate 
 days are idle and presumptuous. If there were such 
 days in the calendar, a kind and firm Providence 
 would never permit the race of man to discover 
 them. It would rob life of one of its principal at- 
 tractions, and make fishing altogether too easy to 
 be interesting." 
 
 While all this is true of angling it is not true con- 
 cerning the art of fishing for men. When Jesus 
 called His disciples He said: "Follow Me and I 
 will make you fishers of men." 
 
 He makes them fishers as to their office, by His 
 call, which is twofold, outward and inward, by set- 
 ting them apart to the office of the ministry ; and 
 it is our business to know whether we have it or 
 not. 
 
 He makes them fishers as to success ; that is. He 
 makes them catch men to Himself by the power of 
 His spirit accompanying the word they preach. 
 
 Thomas Boston once said: "What an honorable 
 thing it is to be fishers of men ! How great an honor 
 shouldst thou esteem it, to be a catcher of souls ! 
 We are workers together with God, says the apostle. 
 If God has ever so honored thee, O that thou knew- 
 est it, that thou mightst bless His holy name, that 
 ever made such a poor fool as thee to be a co-worker 
 with Him. God has owned thee to do good to those 
 who were before caught. O my soul, bless thou the 
 Lord. Lord, what am I, or what is my father's 
 house that Thou hast brought me to this?" 
 
 2 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Just to prove that it is possible for us to be sure 
 of success Jesus gives us the vision of His own 
 gracious ministry and then sends out into the work 
 men Hke Matthew, a Collector of Customs, and of 
 the opposite extreme a man like Peter, who was a 
 profane fisherman ; and both of them became equally 
 successful in the art of man fishing; so that one can 
 readily see that it is not a question of natural gifts 
 but rather a question of absolute yielding to Him 
 who stands ready to equip us with power and skill 
 for this most wonderful work. 
 
 One of the most fascinating fishing pictures in the 
 New Testament is found in the twenty-first chapter 
 of the Gospel of John. The scene is on the shores 
 of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus loved to be, and 
 which was also an attractive place to His disciples. 
 
 After Jesus had been crucified and the disciples 
 were as sheep without a shepherd they were gathered 
 one evening upon the shores of the Sea watching 
 the fishermen put out to their night's work. There 
 is a peculiar fascination about fishing. If once you 
 have been skilled in this work nothing can ever 
 wean you from it. And Peter was a real fisherman. 
 With eyes flashing and face flushed he turns to his 
 fellow disciples to say : "I go a-fishing." His spirit 
 stirs them and they reply : "We also go with thee." 
 It was a poor night's work for them, for that night 
 they caught nothing. Then there is given to us one 
 of those beautiful gems of scripture in which the 
 Bible so abounds, John 21:4-5-6: "But when the 
 rnorning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore ; 
 but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then 
 
 3 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Jesus saitli unto them, Children, have ye any meat? 
 They answered Him, no. And He said unto them. 
 Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye 
 shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were 
 not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes." 
 
 It is well worth our while to notice the difference 
 between the close of the third verse and the close 
 of the sixth. In the first we read : "They caught 
 nothing," in the second it is said "they were not 
 able to draw it for the multitude of fishes," How 
 can you account for the remarkable change in re- 
 sults ? — for you have the same sea, the same nets and 
 the same fishermen. To my mind it is an easy prob- 
 lem to solve, and herein lies the secret of successful 
 fishing for men. The first time they toiled in their 
 own strength, the second time in the strength of 
 their Risen Lord, The first time they simply exer- 
 cised their own ingenuity and fisherman's skill, the 
 second time they obeyed perfectly the commands of 
 Him who stood upon the shore saying: "Cast the 
 net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find," 
 
 Seated one day in my home in Philadelphia in 
 conversation with the Rev, F, B. Meyer, I heard 
 from him the story of his work in the interest of 
 discharged prisoners. He was seeking to aid them 
 by means of a wood yard which was equipped with 
 a splendid saw set on a strong frame and turned by 
 the men themselves. I was the more interested in 
 this because I was seeking to do the same thing for 
 some men in Philadelphia, and the financial results 
 were practically the same. At the close of each 
 week there was a deficit to meet. The wood vard 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 scheme was most unprofitable financially. Then 
 said Mr. Meyer: "There came to me a man who 
 said, 'Why do you not put a steam engine in your 
 wood yard ?' " -Following his suggestions, a little up- 
 right engine was set in operation and the first week 
 the results were entirely different. Instead of losing 
 money I found I had actually made a profit. Then 
 said this distinguished teacher and preacher : "I can 
 imagine myself talking to the saw, saying, 'Old saw, 
 what is it that has made such a difference in you? 
 Up to this time I have always lost money by you 
 and now see what a change.' And if the old saw 
 could speak," said my friend, "I doubt not it would 
 say, 'Well, master, you see prior to this time I have 
 had back of me the power of man, but this week I 
 have been pushed forward by the power of steam.' " 
 And that was the secret of the successful week. 
 
 I doubt not but that many of us have failed in 
 our fishing for men because we have worked simply 
 in the energy of the flesh. When back of us there 
 is the power of the Risen Christ, success is very 
 sure. 
 
 There are different ways of working. I know of 
 one man who has given up everything, friends and 
 home and comforts of every sort, that he may per- 
 sonally labor in behalf of the lost, and he has won 
 men to Christ by the score. Some men may feel, 
 however, that they have little strength or talent to 
 do the personal work for Christ. 
 
 I was told the other day of a wealthy man in St. 
 Louis, who listened to a discussion of personal Evan- 
 gelism, who, when it was over, came to his pastor 
 
 5 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 to say: "See here, I cannot do this work myself; 
 first, because I am too busy, and second, because I 
 am sure I have no talent for it, but if you will find 
 someone whom you know and ask him to devote his 
 whole time to winning souls, I will assume his finan- 
 cial support for at least six months," 
 
 A certain Baptist minister who had toiled four- 
 teen years in a certain church, never had a Com- 
 munion Service that he did not have the joy of 
 welcoming many people into the church and to 
 Christ. Men wondered at his success. They 
 studied his methods to find the secret of his power, 
 all to no avail. When the pastorate came to an end 
 and he was saying good-bye to those who could not 
 say farewell to him, he came to an old bed-ridden 
 saint who said to him : "Doctor, I have never heard 
 you preach, but in all the time that you have been 
 the pastor of our church, I have prayed for you 
 without ceasing. Whenever I could not sleep I 
 prayed and Saturday nights especially, I asked God 
 for a great blessing to rest upon you on the mor- 
 row." The secret was out. This aged Christian 
 man had all the time been winning souls, although 
 he could not leave his room and rarely left his bed. 
 This is another way of doing this work for the Mas- 
 ter, but whether we work, or pay or pray, it must 
 all be in the strength of the Risen Christ who has 
 promised not only to make us fishers of men, but to 
 equip us with power to do the work. And when we 
 work under His direction and leave it all with Him, 
 what may have seemed to be insignificant in our 
 sight becomes mighty in His, for when our weak- 
 
 6 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ness is coupled to His strength no difficulty is too 
 great to surmount. Literally is it true that we can 
 do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. 
 
 The story is told of an artist who fashioned a 
 statue of an Angel from the marble and then sent 
 invitations to his artist friends to look upon his work 
 and criticise it. They were all loud in their praises. 
 Michael Angelo came among the number, and the 
 artist desiring to hear his comments without being 
 seen, hid himself from view and with fast beating 
 heart heard the great artist say as he examined the 
 work critically, "It lacks one thing." The poor artist 
 was well nigh broken hearted when he heard what 
 seemed to be an unfavorable criticism made by the 
 master. After days of suffering he sent to Angelo 
 to hear from his own lips what the lack might be, 
 and he heard the artist say: "It lacks only life to 
 make it perfect. If it had life it would move its 
 wings and take its place among the angels in the 
 skies, and would be as perfect almost as God Himself 
 could make it." 
 
 Whether our work be great or small it amounts 
 to nothing until it has the Master touch and with 
 that touch it is absolutely sure of being crowned 
 with success. 
 
 In the New York Observer, of a recent date, 
 Arthur Jloward Hall has emphasized this thought 
 at the standpoint of a poet : 
 
 "Upon the canvas long the artist wrought. 
 With brush and pallet through each weary day. 
 'Alas!' he sighed, 'I but my faults display'; 
 And sinking on the floor with saddened thought, 
 
 7 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Soon fell asleep. The evening sunbeams caught 
 Perfection's lights and shades in rich array, 
 Because the Master's feet had passed that way — 
 His skill had done what pity had besought. 
 
 "E'en so the Master who has gone above, 
 Beholding how our work is crude and bare, 
 In His own hands the tools doth often take, 
 And by the strong transforming touch of love 
 For our surprise and honor doth prepare. 
 Perfection's lines of beauty, ere we wake.'" 
 
 That distinguished preacher and soul winner, Rev. 
 J. H. Jowett, of Birmingham, England, recently said 
 in a sermon: "George Eliot was once listening to 
 the complaints of some angling friends as they were 
 describing their fruitless day's work. Looking into 
 their empty creels she said : ' Yoti should make a 
 deeper study of the subjectivity of the trout.' That 
 is a very suggestive word, and pregnant with sig- 
 nificance for the fishers in the world of men. We 
 must study the fish that we may find out what will 
 win them for the Lord. All fish cannot be caught ^ 
 by the same bait. We must study the individual 
 prejudices and habits and tastes. We must discover 
 what will catch this man and that man, and address 
 ourselves accordingly. I was once passing through 
 a little village in the Lake Disirict, and there was a 
 card in the shop window which gave me more than 
 a passing thought. On the card were a number of 
 artificial flies with this engaging head-line: 'Flies 
 with which to catch fish in this locality.' The shop- 
 keeper had nothing to say about the requirements 
 of the Midlands. He had studied the characteristics 
 
 8 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 of the fish in his own neighborhood, and he had dis- 
 covered what bait provided the best allurement. We 
 preachers must do it in our own localities. It was 
 the practice of the Apostle Paul : 'To the Jews I 
 became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews.' He 
 became 'all things to all men that he might gain 
 some.' He baited his hook according to the fish he 
 wanted to catch. I don't think we should fish with 
 the same hook for Lydia and the Philippian jailer. 
 It may be that we shall discover that a sermon will 
 never effect the purpose. We may find out that a 
 letter will do infinitely better work. Or it may be 
 that a direct talk may be the requisite constraint. 
 Or, again, it may be that a long conversation, appar- 
 ently indirect and aimless, but quietly dropping one 
 delicate hint, may win a soul for Christ. Study the 
 fish! 
 ; "Learn from other fishermen I Other men will 
 never make us fishers but they will make us 
 better fishers. If we have the rudimentary gift 
 their experience may help to enrich it. Let us 
 turn to the expert fishermen and see if their ways 
 and methods can give us helpful counsel. John Wes- 
 ley was a great fisher; can we learn anything from 
 him ? Dr. Alexander Whyte has told us how he has 
 made a patient and laborious study of John Wesley's 
 journals for the purpose of classifying all the texts 
 upon which the great preacher built his evangel. Is 
 not that a splendid discipline for anyone who wishes 
 to become skilful in the great ministry? What 
 did Wesley preach about? And how did he 
 fit his message to the changing circumstances of 
 
 9 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 his varying spheres? The Salvation Army has a 
 great body of expert fishers. They lack many things, 
 but they catch fish. How do they do it? We may 
 dislike many of their ways, but what is it in their 
 ministry which enables them to win multitudes for 
 the Lord? What was the secret of Finney and 
 Moody? And what is it about Torrey which con- 
 strains the people to become disciples of the Christ ? 
 Let us set about this investigation like men who wish 
 to do great business for the Lord. Let us eagerly 
 pick up any hints which these highly endowed and 
 experienced men may be able to give us. 
 
 " 'It is a great matter to take a trout early in your 
 trial. It gives one more heart. It seems to keep 
 one about his business. Otherwise you are apt to 
 fall into unproductive reverie.' I know no word 
 more closely applicable to the work of the ministry. 
 If we do not catch men we are in great danger of 
 losing even the desire to catch them. Our purposed 
 activity is in peril of becoming a dream. Let me 
 counsel my fellow-preachers in the lay ministry to 
 make up their minds to catch one soul, to go about 
 it day and night until the soul is won. And when 
 they have gained one man for the Master I have 
 then no fear as to what will be their resultant mood. 
 The joy of catching a soul is unspeakable! When 
 we have got one soul we become possessed by the 
 passion for souls. Get one and you will want a 
 crowd ! And let me say this further word. Keep 
 a list of the names of the souls you win for the 
 King, and if on any day you are apt to be cast down, 
 
 lo 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 and the lightness and buoyancy goes out of your 
 spirit, bring out that Hst and read it over, and let 
 the contemplation of those saved lives set your heart 
 a-singing, and inspire you to fresh and more strenu- 
 ous work. It is a good thing to have lists of the 
 Lord's mercies by which to drive away the clouds in 
 a day of apparent adversity. Let your labor be di- 
 rected to the immediate catching of men for the 
 Lord. 'It is a great matter to take a trout early in "^ 
 your trial.' 
 
 "And now I will close this meditation by offering^ 
 a suggestion which I obtained from an advertise- 
 ment in an anglers' paper some time ago. 'Now is 
 the time for your old favorite rods to be overhauled 
 and treated with a steel tonic that will not fail to 
 work wonders in the way of renewing their 
 strength.'. And following this advertisement came 
 this confirmatory testimonial : 'I am glad to ac- 
 knowledge that a very whippy gig-whip of a rod 
 has been converted into a powerful weapon.' My 
 hearers will immediately perceive the spiritual sig- 
 nificance of the words. There are times when we 
 need the 'steel tonic' in order that our poor minis- 
 ters may be converted into powerful weapons. And, 
 blessed be God, we have the promise of this re- 
 demptive work in the very names in which the Holy 
 Spirit is revealed to us. He is called the Renewer, 
 the Reviver, the Restorer of souls, and by His bap- 
 tism the poorest, weakest agent can be turned into a y 
 powerful weapon. 'They that wait upon the Lord 
 shall renew their strength.' Let us turn to our Lord 
 
 JT 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 this very night, and seek for that renewal in the 
 strength of which we shall turn to our work with 
 multiplied possibility, and with perfect assurance of 
 success." 
 
 la 
 
CHAPTER SECOND. 
 
 ORGANIZATIONS FOR MEN. 
 
 There are two organizations greatly used of God 
 to-day in the winning of men to Christ, which for 
 special reasons I must mention. 
 
 First, The Young Men's Christian Association, 
 and second, the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip. 
 To the first I owe more than I can ever express. 
 To the second I shall as a pastor always be indebted, 
 for the Brotherhood in the Bethany Church of Phil- 
 adelphia was my strong right arm for service and I 
 am persuaded that for whatever of success was given 
 me in connection with that pastorate, much of the 
 credit in the day of awards will be given to the loyal 
 members of that great brotherhood of men. 
 
 It was in a Young Men's Association in the City 
 of Richmond, Indiana, years ago, that I decided to 
 preach the Gospel if God would only open the way. 
 I had been asked to lead an Association meeting, 
 something I had never done before. Tremblingly I 
 undertook the task and when the service was over, 
 an old gentleman by the name of Oliver Coggshall, 
 a long time friend of my father's, came to speak a 
 word of encouragement to me. He said that I had 
 helped him. This seemed strange to me inasmuch 
 as he was an aged Christian at that time, and yet 
 somehow as he spoke there came to me a vision of 
 some slight service which I might render to God and 
 
 13 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 to humanity if I could only become a preacher of the 
 Gospel. It is natural, therefore, that I should be 
 hearty in my commendation of the Association 
 work. 
 
 In these days, however, it has come to pass that the 
 Association is so mighty in its influence, reaches and 
 helps so many different classes of people, that for a 
 minister not to be interested in its work, is to cut 
 himself off from one of the most inspiring features 
 of Christian service in modern church life and prac- 
 tically to stand against that work for men which 
 God is highly honoring. 
 
 The city work, the work among students, rail- 
 road men, soldiers and sailors, is to my mind simply 
 wonderful and I praise God that He has called into 
 this branch of His service men of such consecrated 
 spirit and such excellent tact as the members of the 
 International Committee, the secretaries and others. 
 And I yet believe that, great as has been the work in 
 the past, it is really just at the beginning of its best 
 history. In many of our cities and towns to-day 
 great audiences of men are being gathered Sundax' 
 after Sunday to hear the preaching of the Gospel, 
 and thousands are being won to Christ. 
 
 Mr. Fred B. Smith, one of whose addresses ap- 
 pears in another part of this book, has been raised 
 up to God to preach the Gospel to young men. I 
 have never seen greater manifestations of power 
 than in his meetings, and literally it is true that when 
 he preaches hundreds press forward to take his 
 hand, signifying their desire and determination to 
 lay hold upon Jesus Christ. Cod bless the Young 
 
 14 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Men's Christian Association, one of the mightiest 
 agencies in the world's history for the training of 
 "fishers of men." 
 
 The Brotherhood of Andrew and PhiHp is a 
 body of men held together by two rules, the Rule 
 of Prayer, in which the members bind them- 
 selves to pray every day for the spread of Christ's 
 Kingdom among men ; and the Rule of Service, in 
 which an agreement is made that each week the 
 Brotherhood man will give an invitation to some one 
 to attend the services of the church. Its founder, 
 the Rev. Rufus VV. Miller, D. D., of Philadelphia, is 
 still its active president, and is doing everything in 
 his power to extend the influence of this great 
 brotherhood. It has now found a place in many 
 different denominations, and I have no hesitation in 
 saying that no pastor can find a better organization 
 for his men than this, and if a Brotherhood is estab- 
 lished and the members of it are thoroughly trained, 
 there is available at once a great force, which may 
 be used for the winning of men to Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Brotherhood of the Bethany Church of Phila- 
 delphia came about in this way : I had just accepted 
 the pastorate of this important church* and was 
 standing at the foot of the pulpit steps one morning 
 after I had preached my sermon, when an aged man 
 passed along and, taking me by the hand, said: 
 "Well, sir, I am very much afraid that you will make 
 this pastorate a failure. I certainly know that you 
 will without help. We have had distinguished 
 men here as pastors of this church and you 
 are young and I tremble for you." And looking 
 
 15 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 around the great church building, with pity really 
 shining in his eyes, he said: "But I have stopped 
 to say to you that I am going to help you." It 
 seemed almost ridiculous and I wondered -what this 
 old man could do for me. Then he said: "I have 
 covenanted with two other men to pray for you so 
 long as you are the pastor of this church and we 
 have determined to ask that God will make you a 
 winner of souls." Then I looked about the great 
 church with eyes filled with tears and knew in my 
 heart that God was going to give us a manifestation 
 of His presence and power in that work. The three 
 men became ten, the ten grew to twenty, the twenty 
 numbered one hundred and the Brotherhood grew 
 until at last it came to be true that every Sunday 
 morning from 9:45 to IO.-45, from four to six 
 hundred men met me for prayer and conference. 
 The meetings were thrilling in their interest. Not 
 a service was held without conversions. The men 
 prayed for God's blessing upon me as their pastor. 
 They frequently accompanied me into the church. 
 They sometimes formed a great choir in the gallery 
 and sang with great effect. Again they occupied 
 seats in different parts of the church and watched 
 for souls. They stood by me when I preached on 
 the streets, they went with me as a great army when 
 I conducted meetings in another part of the city. 
 They still stand close to me in their affections. 
 When I was called away from the church, so impor- 
 tant was the service deemed to be, that the Hon, 
 John W'anamaker, the senior elder of the church and 
 the honored superintendent of the Bethany Sunday 
 
 16 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 School, decided to give a portion of bis valuable 
 time to the Brotherhood work. He now meets with 
 the men every Sunday morning. He has aided them 
 in erecting a club house to which they have free ac- 
 cess and he himself has publicly said that there is no 
 greater work to be accomplished to-day by the min- 
 ister and the church officers than the work in the 
 interests of men. To one seeking the best organi- 
 zation for such a work, I would say, study the 
 principles of this Brotherhood of Andrew and 
 Philip. 
 
 There is also now in existence an organization of 
 Christian traveling men known as the Gideons. The 
 society is just a few years old, but already it has 
 exerted a powerful influence over the lives of the 
 men who are deprived of the uplifting home sur- 
 roundings and regular church life. The general sec- 
 retary of the Gideons has told me that until he was 
 thirty-five years of age no one had ever spoken to 
 him about his soul. To make up for this failure on 
 the part of others, the Gideons, from their secretary 
 to the last man in their order, seem to be determined 
 that no one shall come within the reach of their 
 influence that they do not attempt to bring him to 
 Jesus Christ. They hold services in the hotels where 
 any considerable number of them stop together. 
 They are always welcome guests in the churches of 
 the diiTerent cities. They wear a little badge with a 
 blue background on which there is a small white 
 pitcher, emblematic of the pitchers that were broken 
 by the faithful three hundred when they cried out 
 as thev ran : "The sword of the Lord and of Gid- 
 
 17 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 COD." The text of scripture which is really the battle 
 cry of the Gideons is found in Judges the 7th chap- 
 ter and the 21st verse, "And they stood every man 
 in his place round about the camp ; and all the host 
 ran, and cried, and fled." 
 
 Then there is the special work carried on in the 
 interests of men by the rescue missions of the coun- 
 try. These missions find men at their worst, and as 
 they preach Christ to them, they have the joy of 
 seeing them restored to manhood and led to the 
 Savior. If there is one key note which sounds out 
 above another in the work of the rescue mission- 
 aries in behalf of fallen men, it is love for the lost. 
 The mission with which I am most familiar is the 
 old Jerry McAuley Mission, 316 Water street, New 
 York. Nothing pleases the superintendent of this 
 mission, S. H. Hadley, my personal friend, so much 
 as to be given an opportunity to love a lost man 
 back to his Savior. In Isaiah, the 38th chapter and 
 the 17th verse, we read, "Behold, for peace I had 
 great bitterness ; but Thou hast in love to my soul 
 delivered it from the pit of corruption." The mar- 
 ginal reading of this verse is, "Thou hast loved my 
 soul from the pit." This is the secret of successful 
 soul winning in rescue missions. I have seen Mr. 
 Hadley's face fairly beam when he realized that 
 some poor lost soul had thought for a moment that 
 he had beaten him out of a night's lodging or a 
 square meal. When I called his attention to the 
 fact his only response was, "My, but this is fine ! This 
 only gives me another opportunity to show the spirit 
 of Jesus and to love a little harder." Somehow, in 
 
 18 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 the end, this always seems to win out. When in 
 New York City men are kicked out of every sort of 
 respectable place, and are not even welcomed in the 
 police station, they gravitate to Water street, and 
 the more depraved they are, the more sure they seem 
 to be of the hearty welcome from this Christlike 
 man who has succeeded Jerry McAulcy in his great 
 work, and who is known throughout the world as 
 "S. H. Hadley, the drunkard's friend." To spend 
 an evening in such a mission is to feel almost as if 
 }ou were reading a new chapter in the Acts of the 
 Apostles. The men testifying there are sure of their 
 conversion. They know the day, the hour, and 
 almost the minute when they were saved. I am per- 
 suaded, however, that if we had something of this 
 same spirit of love in our work for men who have 
 not fallen quite so low we might win more 
 of the lost to the Savior. \Miere argument fails, 
 and preaching has no power, where singing is use- 
 less, love generally prevails. Truer words concern- 
 ing the subject of fishing for men have never been 
 written than these recorded by the Apostle Paul in 
 the 13th chapter of i Corinthians: 
 
 "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of 
 angels, and have not love, I am become as a sound- 
 ing brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have 
 the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries 
 and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so 
 that I could remove mountains, and have not love, 
 I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods 
 to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be 
 burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. 
 
 19 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Love suffereth long and is kind ; love envieth not ; 
 love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not 
 behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not 
 easily provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in 
 iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all 
 things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, en- 
 dureth all things. Love never faileth ; but whether 
 there be prophecies, they shall fail, whether there 
 be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowl- 
 edge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, 
 and we prophesy in part. But when that which is 
 perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be 
 done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, 
 I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but 
 when I became a man, I put away childish things. 
 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then 
 face to face ; now I know in part ; but then shall I 
 know even as also I am known. And now abideth 
 faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of 
 these is love." 
 
 20 
 
CHAPTER THIRD. 
 
 A FASCINATING WORK. 
 
 There is no joy that can be compared with that 
 which rightfully belongs to a true servant of Christ. 
 If men were seeking an experience of joy just from 
 a selfish motive, I would advise an immediate en- 
 trance upon some form of Christian work. 
 
 Beyond every other experience known to man is 
 the satisfaction which God has given to the one who 
 really preaches the Gospel, in no uncertain way, 
 making no apology for his message, and believing 
 it to be the very word of God and the power of God 
 which is able to save to the uttermost. It is a joy 
 to win any one to Christ, for when we win the lost, 
 'we set joy throbbing in three places. 
 
 First. In the sinner's heart. There is nothing like 
 that thrill which comes to the one who yesterday 
 was in the darkness of sin, and to-day is in the clear 
 light of the knowledge of God. 
 
 Second. Joy in the workers' heart. It is actually L-^ 
 beyond the power of human language to describe. 
 There must be great satisfaction in painting a mas- 
 terpiece and making the canvas live with the feat- 
 ures of Jesus Christ, but it is not to be compared 
 with the joy which comes to one in the possession 
 of the knowledge that he has been used of God to 
 bring to those who are lost and ruined by the power 
 of sin the ineffaceable likeness of Jesus Christ. 
 
 21 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Third. Joy in the heart of God. There is a text 
 of scripture which we frequently quote as follows: 
 "There is joy among the angels over one sinner that 
 repenteth," but this is a misquotation and should 
 read, "There is joy in the presence of the angels of 
 God," and where can this be but in the very heart of 
 God himself? Is it not thrilling to know that we 
 may have a share in a work which fills the heart of 
 the Infinite God with joy? 
 
 -While the general work of the minister is so much 
 to be desired, yet I can truthfully say that there 
 is no part of it so thoroughly fascinating as untiring 
 service in the interests of men. But there are cer- 
 tain things that must be remembered if we are to 
 move these special hearers. The message must be 
 personal. Men enjoy being told where they are 
 wrong if the one who is speaking tells them of their 
 errors in the spirit of Jesus Christ. The message 
 must be practical. The idea that some ministers 
 have that the men of the world enjoy scientific and 
 philosophical discussions is nonsense. "When men 
 come to the house of God they come as a rule not 
 to hear the things they have been thinking about all 
 week, not to have discussed a proposition in which 
 they may outrank in knowledge the speaker, but to 
 hear that which has in it the very presence and 
 power of God and breathes of the atmosphere of 
 Heaven. The message must be exceedingly plain. 
 Men never admire a trimmer in anything, least of 
 all do they admire him in the pulpit. In no uncer- 
 tain way should the representative of Jesus Christ 
 speak concerning the sinfulness of sin. 
 
 22 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 I was preaching not long ago in Chicago, when the 
 following came to me from one of the men of the 
 city : "I wish I might say something that would 
 encourage you in your good work, and may I not 
 write something that will express the feelings of 
 hundreds of young men in this city? Like many 
 others I am from a dear old Christian home in the 
 country, and when I first came to the city about 
 twenty years ago I abhorred sin, gradually I came 
 to endure it, then embraced. It is with remorse and 
 shame that I think novv of the wasted years of dis- 
 sipation, of the cruel sorrow I caused the dear 
 patient mother, whose hands were so lately folded 
 in death, and whose prayers were constantly ascend- 
 ing to Heaven for me. Oh, sir, tell the young men 
 not to wait until their mothers' lips have grown cold 
 to tell her that they love her, and that her Savior 
 will be their Savior too. I wish I could warn them 
 from my own sad experience to avoid sin and resist 
 temptation, but sin has made a coward of me. I 
 ask your prayers for more courage and strength." 
 
 If there is a suggestion of a disposition on the 
 part of ministers to give even the appearance of 
 excusing sin or treating it lightly or with indiffer- 
 ence, that very fact will alienate from the preachers 
 many of their hearers because they know too well 
 what sin is, and what it can do. If one would be 
 successful in fishing for men, I would earnestly ad- 
 vise that his message be plain and pointed, and that 
 no room be left for any one to imagine that the 
 speaker for a moment fails to recognize the awful 
 foe with which he and the men before him have to 
 
 23 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 deal. The beginnings of sin are so insidious that 
 we cannot speak too plainly even about questionable 
 things. 
 
 In a men's meeting, recently conducted by one of 
 the most successful pastors in Ohio, a converted 
 gambler and ex-saloon keeper made the following 
 statement, which created a profound impression. 
 
 He said : "I have been in the saloon business, 
 with a gambling-room attached, for the last four 
 years, and claim to know something about what I 
 am now going to tell you. I do not believe that the 
 gambling den is near so dangerous, nor does it do 
 anything like the same amount of harm as the social 
 card party in the home. I give this as my reason: 
 In the gambling room the windows are closed tight, 
 the curtains are pulled down ; everything is con- 
 ducted secretly for fear of detection, and none but 
 gamblers, as a rule, enter there, while in the parlor 
 all have access to the game, children are permitted 
 to watch it, young people are invited to partake in 
 it. It is made attractive and alluring by giving 
 prizes, serving refreshments and adding high social 
 enjoyments. For my part, I never could see the 
 difference between playing for a piece of silver 
 molded in the shape of money and silver molded in 
 the shape of a cup or a thimble. The principle is 
 the same, and whenever property changes hands over 
 the luck of the cards, no matter how small is the 
 value of the prize, I believe it is gambling. Per- 
 haps you have never thought of it, but where do all 
 the gamblers come from? They are not taught in 
 the gambling dens. A 'greener,' unless he is a fool, 
 
 24 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 never enters a gambling hell, because he knows that 
 he will be fleeced out of everything he possesses in 
 less than fifteen minutes. He has learned some- 
 where else before he sets foot inside of such a place. 
 When he has played in the parlor, in the social game 
 of the home, and has become proficient enough to 
 win prizes among his friends, the next step with him 
 is to seek out the gambling-room, for he has learned 
 and now counts upon his efficiency to hold his own. 
 The saloon men and gamblers chuckle and smile 
 when they read in the papers of the parlor games 
 given by the ladies, for they know that after a while 
 those same men will become the patrons of their 
 business. I say, then, the parlor game is the college 
 where gamblers are made and educated. In the 
 name of God, men, stop this business in your homes. 
 Burn up your decks and wash your hands. The 
 other day I overheard two ladies talking on the 
 street. One said, 'I am going to have a card party, 
 and am going to the store to buy a pack of cards. 
 Which are the best kind to get ?' The other replied, 
 'Get the Angel card. It has an angel on the back.' 
 Think," said he, "of dragging the pure angels of 
 heaven into this infernal business !" 
 
 After he had taken his seat another converted ex- 
 gambler arose and said: "I indorse every word 
 which the brother before me has just uttered. I 
 was a gambler. I learned to play cards, not in the 
 saloon, not in my own home, but in the houses of 
 my young friends, who invited me to play with 
 them and taught me how." A number of men 
 went home from that afternoon meeting and set 
 
 25 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 up a new rule in their families, that never should 
 another game be played in their homes, that their 
 parlors should not become kindergartens for train- 
 ing young gamblers. 
 
 It really is an inspiration to preach to men because 
 there is so much in man that appeals to you — his 
 unselfishness, his bigheartedness, his willingness to 
 do for others, the heroic element in him all stir us 
 to our best efifort in his behalf. Not long ago the 
 country was thrilled with the tidings of the narrow 
 escape from destruction of one of our great war 
 vessels. There was a fire on board and it was sweep- 
 ing down toward the powder magazine, when almost 
 miraculously the vessel was saved. The credit for 
 saving the battle-ship ^Missouri from destruction 
 and hundreds of her crew from death belongs to 
 a gunner's mate named ]\Ionson. This is the report 
 that came from Pensacola by way of Washington. 
 
 When the charge exploded in the battle-ship's 
 turret, Monson was in the handling-room below. He 
 was getting out more powder from the open maga- 
 zine. When fire came pouring down the ammuni- 
 tion hoist Monson knew instantly what must be 
 done. It was to shut the magazine, lest the tons 
 of powder in it also explode and sink the ship. 
 If Monson had stayed in the handling-room he 
 would undoubtedly have failed to close the maga- 
 zine. He would have been killed, as were his com- 
 rades there, by the explosion of the powder already 
 taken out of the magazine. His thought and action 
 were instant. He did the thing to be done, and did 
 
 26 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 it in the only way in which it could be done. He 
 jumped into the magazine and pulled the door shut 
 behind him. He did this in the face of certain death 
 by fire if he failed and probable death by water if he 
 succeeded. For he knew that the first thing his 
 comrades elsewhere would do would be to flood the 
 magazine. IMonson was up to his neck in water and 
 nearly dead from suffocation. But he saved the ship 
 and hundreds of her crew. 
 
 Gunner's Mate Monson is a hero of the useful 
 type, the hero of disciplined intelligence, the man 
 who is not only fearless but thinks straight, acts 
 fast, and so meets the requirements of a great emer- 
 gency, the kind of man who, according to his oppor- 
 tunities, saves a ship or a nation. 
 
 It is an awful thing to realize that sin can take 
 one possessed of such a spirit as this, destroy his 
 manhood, weaken his character, blight his reputa- 
 tion and cause him to lose his soul. This fact in 
 itself should stir ministers and Christian workers to 
 the best effort in behalf of the men about them. It 
 is inspiring to know that we have a Gospel which 
 never fails in its power to restore lost manhood, to 
 prevent the destruction of character, to make possi- 
 ble a reputation that shall commend the owner to 
 the favor of men and save the soul for time and for 
 eternity. 
 
 Not long ago there came to my notice the story of 
 the great Seaham explosions in the old country. 
 Elderly men still live in the vicinity of this awful 
 tragedy whose memories keep a vivid impression 
 
 27 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 of that direful day and the story of the heroic death 
 of the Christian miners is still willingly told to all 
 who will listen. 
 
 The men were working in four gangways, strik- 
 ing out at right angles from a central space, into 
 which they all rushed at the first warning of danger. 
 Then the frightful explosion took place, blocking 
 up each of the outlets with falling stones and tim- 
 bers, thus cutting off those poor imprisoned men 
 from hope of rescue so completely that it was twelve 
 months before the working party of excavators could 
 reach this death trap. 
 
 When at length the dense mass of debris was dug 
 through and cleared away, the miners came upon a 
 gruesome scene. The whole of their missing mates 
 were grouped there, the skeletons on which the 
 clothes hung loosely, each in a sitting posture of 
 perfect composure. The immediate cause of death 
 would be the noxious choke-damp, in which life can- 
 not possibly exist for any length of time. Thomas 
 Cole, the overman, a pronounced and consistent 
 Christian, had evidently been the last to succumb 
 to the fatal vapor. As each of his comrades passed 
 out of life, he had, with singular thoughtfulness, 
 written the name and attached it to the clothes. So, 
 when the remains were reverently and tenderly con- 
 veyed to the bank, each mourning family could have 
 the poor comfort of burying its own dead. 
 
 There was another use of Thomas Cole's bit of 
 charcoal, which cast a radiant light over the scene 
 of death. Close to his body was a piece of paper 
 
 28 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 on which was scrawled the words : "We have had 
 a prayer-meeting. Every soul ready for glory. 
 Hallelujah ! Thomas Cole." 
 
 Let us try for a moment to realize the scene. In 
 the midst of their work an ominous warning of 
 catastrophe, a sudden rush to the nearest outlet, 
 which was the central square already described, fol- 
 lowed by an explosion violent enough to smash down 
 all the supports of the passages and block them with 
 the ruins. For a moment the men, gathered to- 
 gether in a position of comparative safety, would be 
 full of thankfulness that they had escaped mutila- 
 tion or a crushed-out life, but very quickly they 
 would realize that this inside position, with the long, 
 blocked-up passage between them and the approach 
 of a rescue party, made their case hopeless. Then 
 they would know, as only dying men can know, the 
 full blessing of Christ's salvation. There would be 
 no time for reasoning, only for a solemn renewal of 
 faith in a living, present Savior, with earnest words 
 of prayer and committal to Him of those who were 
 so soon to be widows and orphans. 
 
 We know He did not fail them ; we are sure He 
 was there, and that, tenderly as a mother soothes 
 her child in a good night lullaby. He would hush 
 them one by one into the sleep of death. When 
 they waked, it would be to find that they were still 
 with Him, but in the morning of eternal day ! This 
 w^as the explanation of the tranquil attitude, and of 
 Thomas Cole's written words of final triumph. It is 
 one more grand testimony to the surpassing excel- 
 
 2q 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 lence of our holy religion. Man may scoff at the 
 Christian faith ; it is exceedingly easy to do that. 
 But let those laugh who win. 
 
 There is that in man which causes him to center 
 his affections and interests with enthusiasm and 
 untiring zeal upon whatever is before him as a goal. 
 If he gives himself to sin, it is with terrific abandon- 
 ment. If he sets out to win the favor of men, he 
 is disposed to accomplish it at any cost. If he has 
 decided upon amassing a fortune, he will toil day 
 and night that his aim may be reached. It is to all 
 such that Jesus Christ speaks when he says, "What 
 shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
 lose his own soul?" 
 
 Count Leo Tolstoi, in one of his interesting books, 
 tells the story of the legend of Russia in which it 
 w^as said that in a certain part of Russia a man 
 could have all the land he could measure out from 
 sunrise to sunset, but he must run about it all to 
 justify his claim. He pictures one starting at sunrise 
 and bending every energy running about his desired 
 possession. He sees the waving trees in the dis- 
 tance, and determining they shall be his, he takes 
 them in in his race. He catches a glimpse of the 
 shining river ahead and putting forth renewed ef- 
 fort he says, "that shall be mine," and he includes 
 it in his circle. When, lifting his eyes to his 
 amazement he finds that the sun has passed the 
 meridian, then bending every energy, he hastens 
 back only to find that he seems to be too far away 
 to reach the place from which he started in time 
 to claim his possession. He runs with the speed 
 
 30 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 of the wind, going faster and faster until at last, 
 with one heroic effort, he reaches the starting place 
 and touches the goal. All that he has encircled 
 is his. He falls upon his face from sheer exhaus- 
 tion, and when the}'^ stoop to pick him up, he is dead. 
 He has gained it all and lost his life. 
 
 Is not this a true picture of the efforts constantly 
 being put forth by many men to-day to amass a 
 fortune or to secure honor and is there not danger 
 that the same sad ending will be the result ? Because 
 of the intenseness of man's nature, therefore, and 
 because of the fact that he longs for something on 
 which he may center his affections and consume his 
 zeal, what an inspiration it is to the preacher to 
 know that he may present Christ to all such, and 
 the Savior whose presence is not only able to save 
 from sin's penalty and sin's power, but is able to 
 draw out the best that is in man, until with character 
 completely transformed he stands ready for life in 
 its best sense and has made provision not only for 
 time, but for eternity as well. 
 
 There is no work in all the world so fascinating 
 as the work in the interest of men, and he who 
 preaches the Gospel is missing almost the best of 
 his ministry if he does not seek to become a fisher 
 of men. 
 
 31 
 
CHAPTER FOURTH. 
 
 AN EASY WORK. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, it is the universal testi- 
 mony of those who have given special attention to 
 vi^ork in the interests of men, that the easiest person 
 in all the world to reach with the Gospel is not a 
 a woman, nor a boy, nor a girl, but a man, a full 
 grown man ; one even that is steeped in sin. I am 
 quite well aware that very many will take exception 
 to this statement, but I make it not only as express- 
 ing the views of others, but as my own clear and 
 honest conviction. But if we would have our efforts 
 crowned with success, it is essential that we should 
 keep in mind several great principles, the first of 
 which is that in order to lead a man to Christ, you 
 must first of all make him think. Men are so held 
 by the power of the world, their attention is so occu- 
 pied with the battle of life, and sometimes, alas, 
 their eyes are so blinded and their minds so deceived 
 by the fascination of sin, that a sharp message is 
 often needed to provoke attention, but when once 
 the interest is aroused and the Gospel presented, it 
 is comparatively easy to lead the impressed one to 
 the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Not long ago, in the meetings in Chicago, a young 
 man with a very white face came up to me saying, 
 "What do you mean, sir, by telling my story?" And 
 I said to him, "I do not understand you." "Well," 
 
 32 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 he said, "I came into the meeting a Httle late, and 
 you were using an illustration concerning a young 
 man who had defaulted, and was trying in every 
 way to escape arrest, and elude the officers. What 
 you said was exactly my story and I was confident 
 that some one had discovered me and given you the 
 account of my wrong doing." "My dear sir," I said, 
 "I have never seen you before, I did not even know 
 that you were in existence," but his intense convic- 
 tion was an illustration of what I have already been 
 saying. When the truth is presented with emphasis 
 and plainness, it always grips, for while I had been 
 giving the account of this particular sin of which the 
 young man was guilty, without having him in mind, 
 I had closed by saying, "He that covereth his sin 
 shall not prosper," and "Be sure your sin will find 
 you out." I also said : "You cannot hide away from 
 God, and it is well nigh impossible in these days for 
 you to hide away from men." When a few days had 
 passed, I received from him the following brief note : 
 "Dear sir, I have resolved to take your advice and I 
 am now going back to Cleveland to make a clean 
 breast of everything. Good-bye .and God bless you." 
 One of my friends was preaching in a southern 
 city when the sherifif of the county was almost per- 
 suaded to be a Christian. The meetings closed and 
 he had not reached a decision. A year afterward 
 my friend went into that city again and found the 
 old sheriff" was dying and unsaved. He stood by 
 his bedside holding his hand saying, "Mr. Sheriflf, 
 they tell me you are going to die," and before he 
 could say more, the old man drew away his hand. 
 
 c 33 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 His face flushed and his eyes fairly flashed as he 
 said, "Yes, sir, I am going to die, and I want you to 
 know that I am not afraid to die. I have stood face 
 to face with death too many times to flinch now." 
 They say he had been one of the bravest soldiers in 
 the Confederate army. My friend then said to him, 
 "I am sure you are speaking the truth, and that you 
 are not afraid to meet the great enemy we call death, 
 but I have one question to put to you. How about 
 the Judgment, your meeting with God and your 
 standing face to face with your sins?" The old man 
 was startled for a moment, then covering his eyes 
 with his hands, his thin lips were seen to tremble, 
 and the tears started to roll down his cheeks, as he 
 said, "God pity me, sir, I am not ready for the judg- 
 ment." The one thing that moved him was the sharp 
 question of the minister, and what is true in con- 
 versation will be equally true in preaching. 
 
 It is likewise necessary for us to remember that 
 Christ is the only Savior of men, and that if men 
 have rejected Christ, then according to the scriptures 
 they are lost. This is not an easy thing to say, but it 
 must be said if we accept the Bible as the word of 
 God. Clearly must it be shown that the chiefest of all 
 sins is the rejection of the Son of God. When Jesus 
 spoke concerning the coming of the Holy Ghost, he 
 said, "When He is come. He will reprove the world 
 of sin," and the word "reprove" is a judicial expres- 
 sion, which means to set before or make plain, as a 
 lawyer sets before the jury the evidence against the 
 one who is accused ;but in this instance, Jesus clearly 
 states, that the sin of which the Spirit of God will 
 
 34 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 reprove men, is that they have not beheved on the 
 Son of God. When the day of judgment comes, 
 therefore, the question that will be asked is not, 
 were you drunken or profane, dishonest or impure, 
 but, what did you do with Jesus Christ ? Upon the 
 answer to that question depends our standing or 
 falling in the presence of the judge on the Great 
 White Throne. 
 
 It must also be remembered that there is no work 
 so delicate as the work of winning souls, and this is 
 especially true when attention is given to the win- 
 ning of men. I once heard Dr. Talmage say in his 
 characteristic fashion, "There is no art quite so fine 
 as that of the fisherman." Jesus knew exactly what 
 He was talking about and what He had in mind for 
 His disciples when he said, "I will make you fish- 
 ers of men." When a true fisherman fishes in these 
 days, he selects the most delicate rod, equips it with 
 the finest line, and puts upon it the most tempting fly. 
 He then wades carefully and so far as possible, noise- 
 lessly into the stream. With a dexterous throw, he 
 casts his line and almost instantly has in his basket 
 a 'beautiful trout, which is the sure reward of his 
 fisher's skill. "But," says Dr. Talmage, "when wc 
 attejnpt to fish for men, we do exactly the opposite. 
 We use a beam for a rod, a cable for a line, and an 
 anchor for a hook, and then with great commotion, 
 we cast out into the great sea of life and say to men, 
 bite or be damned." "Is it any wonder," said the 
 great preacher, "that we are so unsuccessful when 
 "vve have so far missed the thought of the greatest 
 of all fishers for men, even Jesus Christ Himself?" 
 
 35 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Again, we must be wedded to no particular 
 method if we would be successful in our work. 
 There are some men who seem to be constitutionally 
 opposed to anything that savors of variety or 
 change. And yet Jesus was rarely twice the same. 
 He talks quietly in one place and lifts up His voice 
 to cry aloud in another. He pleads upon the moun- 
 tain side and stretches forth His hands in an en- 
 treaty from Peter's boat. He speaks tenderly to 
 little children and the mothers that bear them into 
 His presence, and cries aloud in another instance, 
 saying to men who would mock Him, "Ye genera- 
 tion of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of 
 hell ?" He used all kinds of illustrations, to-day 
 a crystal of salt, and to-morrow a grain of mus- 
 tard seed. In this sermon the flowers were His 
 illustration and in the next the flying birds carried 
 home His message of truth. The Apostle Paul also 
 gloried in the fact that he could be all things to all 
 men, if by all means he might save some. We, 
 therefore, in these modern times, need not be afraid 
 of change and variety, for we have illustrious exam- 
 ples before us. 
 
 While summering one time on the shores of Lake 
 George, I was told by an old fisherman that if I 
 would rise early in the morning, row across the lake 
 and anchor my boat at a certain point I could 
 catch any number of fish, and almost any kind that 
 I desired. I eagerly waited the coming of the day, 
 rowed across the bay, anchored my boat as I had 
 been told and cast my line repeatedly, never once' 
 having a strike. At last, in sheer disgust, I was lift- 
 
 36 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ing my anchor, when this same old fisherman rowed 
 up by my side and dropped his anchor, making rapid 
 preparations to fish. I saw him cast his line and 
 draw it in very soon without a fish and very natur- 
 ally I was pleased. Then I saw him bend down for 
 a moment in the bottom of his boat, work very 
 quickly with his hands, cast his line the second time, 
 and instantly draw in as fine a fish as one could 
 hope to catch in inland waters. "How in the world 
 did you do it?" I said to him, and without stopping 
 a moment in his work, in characteristic fisher fashion 
 he said, "I just changed my bait." 
 
 This is sometimes very necessary in our fishing 
 for men. If one thing will not win, then let us 
 try another. If one method fails, without in the 
 least being discouraged, let us adopt another and 
 keep on changing, if that be necessary, until at last 
 we have that of which God can approve and which 
 through us He may be able to use. It is hardly pos- 
 sible for one man to duplicate another's work. The 
 same spirit may possess them both, and yet while 
 the method is different, the results may be practi- 
 cally the same, and that is the important thing. 
 
 Again, if we are expecting to be used of God to / 
 win men to Christ, let us begin with those nearest 
 our own hands. If a minister, then evangelize your 
 own people first. If a business man, lead your own 
 children, your own employes, or your own friends 
 first, remembering this, that when we fill the narrow 
 circle in which we live and work, God will lead us 
 out into the broader sphere and not until. 
 
 A gentleman came up to one of my friends re- 
 
 37 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 cently and said, "I have about decided to enter upon 
 evangelistic work, and I want you to make a few 
 suggestions to me. I have decided upon my field. 
 I shall go into Colorado or California, and I am very 
 sure that with such a class of people as I will find 
 there, I shall be successful." My friend said to 
 him, "Do you live here?" and he said, "Yes, sir, 
 with my brothers and sisters." "Then may I ask you 
 this question, is your brother a Christian?" "Well, 
 no," he said, "he is not. The fact is, I have never 
 asked him." "May I ask if your sisters are Chris- 
 tians?" "No," said he, "they are not, for as a mat- 
 ter of fact, we are not on very good terms with each 
 other and I know little about their spiritual condi- 
 tion." Then my friend turned on him sharply and 
 said, "God will never use you, sir, in the broader 
 work until you are successful in your home field." 
 Build over against your own house first, and then 
 you may expect God to want you elsewhere. 
 
 And finally if one is to be used of God in winning 
 men, he must give the strictest attention to his own 
 personal life, his habits and his character. 
 
 "Thou must be true thyself, 
 
 If thou another soul wouldst reach, 
 It needs the overflow of heart 
 To give the lips full speech." 
 
 The least touch with the world robs us of power. 
 The unconfessed sin will take the ring out of our 
 testimony. A miserable disposition will undo all 
 that we could say to others even though Jesus Christ 
 Himself may be the theme of our conversation. 
 
 38 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 There is one prayer which every Christian worker 
 ought to offer at the beginning and through his life 
 of service. "Search me, O God, and know my heart. 
 Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be 
 any wicked way in me." God does not require either 
 golden vessels or silver vessels for His use, but He 
 must have vessels that are clean. If we are cover- 
 ing any sin in our lives, this will be a barrier to the 
 manifestation of divine grace, and this thought is 
 placed last in order that it may come with special 
 emphasis. When all the above suggestions have 
 been clearly gotten in mind, then it would be well 
 for us to wait before God and say, "and now, my 
 Father, I am willing to do or to be anything, only 
 use me." I doubt not the experience of the poet is 
 ours : 
 
 "The strong man's strength to toil for Christ, 
 
 The fervent preacher's skill, 
 I sometimes wish, but better far, 
 
 To be just what God wills; 
 No service in itself is small. 
 
 None great though earth it fill. 
 But that is small which seeks its own, 
 That great which seeks God's will." 
 
 39 
 
CHAPTER FIFTH. 
 
 PERSONAL EVANGELISM FOR MEN. 
 
 However much emphasis may be placed upon 
 the pubhc preaching of the Gospel, however much 
 importance we may attach to general evangelistic 
 meetings, after all, personal evangelism is the most 
 important part of all our work, and calls at this 
 particular time in the church's history for special 
 attention. It is not difficult to approach men re- 
 garding their relations to Christ and eternity if 
 first there be a consistent life, and then, as has been 
 elsewhere stated, a perfectly natural way of present- 
 ing the claims of the Son of God, for in these days 
 no man has a right to be indiflferent to Him who is 
 the central figure of all history, who is God's revela- 
 tion to man, and who is man's best friend in every 
 emergency of his life. 
 
 You need not fear rebuff". I have been for fifteen 
 years interested in the special work for men. Natu- 
 rally I have spoken to very many about coming to 
 Christ. In all that time I have had but one rebuff. 
 One cold stormy day, up in the northern part of the 
 State of New York, accompanied by one of my 
 church officers, I drove ten miles to ask a gentle- 
 man to become a Christian and to unite with the 
 church. Two members of his family expected to 
 identify themselves with us and it seemed an oppor- 
 
 40 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 tune time to approach the husband and father. The 
 thermometer registered twenty degrees below zero, 
 and hterally in an ahnost frozen condition I reached 
 the farmer's house, met him half way between his 
 barn and his house, and approached him at once 
 stating the object of my visit, "I have come," I 
 said, "to ask you to be a Christian and to join the 
 church," and with flushed face and blazing eyes he 
 said, "Well, sir, I want you to attend to your own 
 business, and when I want you to speak to me on 
 this matter, I will send for you, and until I do, 
 please stay away." Without inviting me into his 
 house, he turned away from me. I stepped into the 
 cutter and drove back ten miles through the storm, 
 reaching my home almost insensible from the cold. 
 My visit seemed a failure. 
 
 Ten years afterwards, to the very month and 
 almost to the very day, I Avas preaching in the First 
 Methodist Church, Saratoga Springs, w^hen a man 
 rose in the audience, saying, "Please pray for me." 
 When he thought I did not see him, he stepped out 
 into the aisle and began walking towards the front 
 of the church. Then facing the great audience he 
 said, "Ten years ago I insulted this minister when 
 he came to me to ask me to be a Christian. When 
 I entered my house, my daughter, who had heard 
 my remark, threw her arms about my neck and 
 said, 'Oh, father, will there never be another 
 chance?' I have prayed God to let me live long 
 enough to confess Christ in this minister's presence ; 
 I do it now, and I bear testimony to this fact that 
 never in all my life was I so profoundly moved as 
 
 41 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 when he spoke to me that winter day." And so my 
 journey, after all, was not a failure. 
 
 I am making no plea for what may seem to be 
 anything like fanaticism, but rather just for con- 
 sistency on the part of Christian men in their re- 
 sponsibility for other people. A Christian banker 
 in a Pennsylvania city noticed that two young men 
 in the bank, after business hours, were accustomed 
 to the use of profanity. He called them into his 
 office and said, "Gentlemen, I am a Christian, I am 
 responsible for this banking house, and so long as I 
 am, you cannot be profane. What you do outside 
 of the bank I am not able to control, but what you 
 do here I am certainly accountable for. May 
 I ask you," he said, "where you are living?" and 
 they told him they w^ere living in boarding houses 
 in the city, their homes being elsewhere. "Then 
 may I ask you," said he, "as your friend, how you 
 spend your evenings, and if your mothers are liv- 
 ing?" and that question brought the tears to their 
 eyes. "Now, gentlemen," said he, "I do not want 
 to appeal to your emotions, but no man can be 
 at his best in these days and disregard the claims 
 of Jesus Christ. The only manly life to live is the 
 Christian life." Then he dismissed them from his 
 presence. The next morning, one of these young 
 men entered his office to say : "I want to thank 
 you for your conversation. Last night I began to 
 read my bible again and I bowed my knees in 
 prayer." Such a conversation as this is the thing 
 for which I plead, for this should be the spirit 
 of Christian business men. Thousands of vouns: 
 
 42 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 men could be kept from wandering and thousands 
 more could be won to Christ. 
 
 One reason why we win so few people in these 
 days is because we are. so unbusinesslike in our ap- 
 proach to men. One of the bishops of the Methodist 
 Church told me of a young Methodist minister who, 
 entering upon one of his first charges, with the as- 
 sistance of one of his official men made a list of 
 business men who ought to be identified with his 
 church. In a perfectly business like manner, he 
 called upon them. He entered one bank, and said 
 to the president: "Sir, I am the pastor of the 
 Methodist Church, and a minister of Jesus Christ. 
 At your convenience, I would like to talk with you 
 about your soul, and I have come to ask you to make 
 an appointment with me." The hour set was four 
 o'clock the next day. Before the minister had left 
 the banking house after his second visit, he had won 
 the banker to Christ. I am persuaded that this 
 spirit would win in many instances. 
 
 One of my friends, beginning a new pastorate, 
 determined to speak personally to every one of his 
 congregation about their soul's welfare. He ap- 
 proached his organist first and asked him if he were 
 a Christian and, to his amazement, found that he 
 was not, and yet he had been twenty-five years play- 
 ing the organ in dififerent churches. "Would you 
 mind telling me frankly why you are not?" said my 
 friend, and the answer given with tears was this: 
 "With the exception of my mother, you are the only 
 person in all my life that has ever asked me to be 
 a Christian. I thank vou for vour interest, and I 
 
 43 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 will give tlie subject my attention." In less than 
 two weeks he was a professed follower of Jesus 
 Christ and a member of the church. 
 
 I am sure that many of us are failing in our work 
 just here. We let opportunities for speaking to 
 others slip away from us, and while we are busy 
 with trifling things, souls pass into eternity, alas, 
 unsaved. 
 
 As I journeyed on the train the other day, travel- 
 ing westward, I saw in the section opposite my 
 own a woman who was weeping bitterly. I crossed 
 over to her and said : "I am a minister, and if I 
 can serve you in any way, it would, give me pleas- 
 ure." I learned that her husband, from whom she 
 had been separated on a visit, had been suddenly 
 taken ill, and she was hurrying from New York to 
 her Colorado home, hoping to see him before he 
 died. In Chicago she had received the message that 
 he was dead, and she seemed well nigh heart broken. 
 Among other things, I asked her if her husband 
 was a Christian. She told me he was not. Then 
 later she said that formerly he was a member of a 
 church, but in his western home where he had lived 
 twenty-five years he had never united with the 
 church. I asked her if he know any minister inti- 
 mately, and she said: "Oh, yes, one of them used 
 frequently to visit him. They talked and laughed 
 about various matters, but my husband used to 
 come home very often and say : 'I wonder why he 
 never asks me to enter his church? I would be 
 so glad if he would.'" And I said to her: "Do 
 you think he would have responded favorably ?" and 
 
 44 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 then with a sob she answered: "My husband and 
 I have been ready for years to enter the church, but 
 no one in our western home has ever invited us." 
 This is a solemn charge to bring against the church, 
 but alas, in too many instances it is a just charge. 
 
 There are many ways by means of which we could 
 win men to Christ. 
 
 First. Speak to them personally. One good rule ^) ^ 
 
 is this : Whenever you have an impression that 
 you ought to speak to any one about his soul, go 
 at once to follow your leading. As a rule, it is true 
 that when God moves you to go, he is moving an- 
 other to receive you. "A word fitly spoken is like 
 apples of gold in pitchers of silver," 
 
 Second. If you are unable to speak, then write a 
 letter praying its truth home as you write and com- 
 mitting it to God that He may work through it. 
 Not long ago I met, personally, the Chief Justice 
 of the Supreme Court of one of our western states, 
 and learned from his own lips, and later from the 
 minister who had been instrumental in his conver- 
 sion, the story of his coming to Christ. He was a 
 brilliant lawyer, but unsaved, and the minister be- 
 came greatly concerned for him. He was afraid 
 to speak to him because of his prominent position, 
 so he wrote a letter to him, but before he could mail 
 it his courage failed him, and he tore it up. Then 
 his wife came to the rescue, and said: "Write an- 
 other letter and we will pray earnestly about it." 
 The letter was written and a little booklet, by Mr. 
 Spurgeon, was slipped into it. The letter was car- 
 ried to the Chief Justice, and they waited eagerly 
 
 45 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 for a reply. Soon it came in the Justices own hand- 
 writing: ''My dear Sir: Your kind letter and the lit- 
 tle book have been received and read. I have been 
 waiting for this message for fifteen years, and I 
 write to tell you that because of your appeal I have 
 given myself to Jesus Christ." No more devoted 
 loyal Christian have I met in many a day than the 
 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of this western 
 state. 
 
 Third. If you would win a soul to Christ, whether 
 you speak or write, by all means pray. We have 
 come to a tirrie when we are quite disposed to think 
 ot prayer as spent force. In a great city, the other 
 day, my own faith was mightily strengthened in 
 prayer. A man came to speak to me, boasting of 
 his infidelity. His remarks were so blasphemous 
 that I threatened to leave him, and with a half 
 spoken apology he told me that his boy was dan- 
 gerously ill. I think it the conviction that God was 
 going to use that for his conversion. At a noon- 
 day business meeting following my interview, the 
 following request was placed in my hands: "Kindly 
 at noon to-day have your Christian hearers join 
 with you in prayer for the sick son of an unbelieving 
 father who cannot pray, and makes the request at 
 the asking of a prayerful Christian wife." This son 
 was dying of pleuro-pneumonia. When the father 
 had left the home in the morning, the case seemed 
 hopeless. Just before noon the physician gave up 
 all hope. His temperature was beyond the danger 
 point and, humanly speaking, he was practically 
 hopeless. Between twelve and half past twelve 
 
 46 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 o'clock, seven hundred men bowed in prayer, and 
 Major James H. Cole rose to voice our petitions. 
 He prayed as I never heard him pray before. It 
 seemed as if the windows to Heaven were truly 
 open above us. Here is the answer to his prayer : 
 Between half past twelve and one o'clock the boy's 
 condition suddenly changed, his temperature miracu- 
 lously dropped to normal, and when the physician 
 came expecting to find him dead, he had passed the 
 danger point and his recovery was made by leaps 
 and bounds. The following Sunday that father 
 stood in a meeting for men, saying, with great emo- 
 tion : "I have been an unbeliever and have 
 blasphemed God, but to-day I desire to say that I 
 want to know the God that has answered your pray- 
 ers for my boy, and so far as I know the way, I 
 will yield myself to Him." Step by step he has come 
 out into an ever brightening Christian experience. 
 
 Does it not seem easy to be a soul winner? It 
 is not simply given to those who are rich or wise or 
 great in the estimation of men, but the work is for 
 every one who will truly live Christ and honestly 
 feel a burden of responsibility for others. 
 
 While preaching in New York recently, my at- 
 tention was repeatedly drawn to a gentleman, who, 
 with his wife, was present at almost every service. 
 I learned afterwards that the wife was a Christian, 
 and that this husband was an honest inquirer. The 
 last evening but one of the meetings, I was preach- 
 ing on the text, "Except a man be born again," and 
 at the close of the service this gentleman deliberately 
 rose and clearly and definitely accepted Christ as a 
 
 47 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Savior. The next afternoon I was preaching in a 
 neighboring church. Just as I was passing out of 
 the service, I was asked to stop and meet a httle 
 boy. I noticed that he was lame, and his face bore 
 not only the marks of suffering, but had that pecu- 
 liar expression which belongs to one who is almost 
 nearer Heaven than earth. Some illness had made 
 it necessary to amputate one of his legs, and leaning 
 on his crutches, he said to me : "I am so glad that 
 my father came to Christ," and then the minister told 
 me the story of the gentleman whose decision had 
 been made the night before. When the meetings 
 began, this little boy had insisted that his mother 
 should see to it that his father was present at every 
 service. Said he: "I cannot go, I know, but while 
 you are with him in the meeting, I will pray." Each 
 night when the parents entered the door, the child's 
 first inquiry would be as to the father's acceptance 
 of Christ. One evening it was raining furiously in 
 the city, and the father had determined to stay at 
 home, but at the boy's urgent plea he went to the 
 church, with the result that I have mentioned pre- 
 viously, namely, his conversion. That night, when 
 they came home, the boy said to him : "You need 
 not tell me, for I know what you have done." Said 
 the little fellow to me: "I never would have given 
 him up so long as I lived." When the father came 
 to bid me good-bye at the last service, he said : "I 
 want to thank you for your words spoken to me in 
 the sermon, but I am compelled to say that the 
 earnest prayer and the unwavering faith of my lame 
 boy forced me to do what I did, and I never can 
 
 48 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 express my pleasure at the result of this new stand 
 which I have taken," 
 
 So you see it is not necessary that we should be 
 great or strong to be winners of souls if our lives 
 are right and our prayers are as they should be. 
 We can win to the Savior those for whom we are 
 concerned, and that is not only joy here, but 
 throughout eternity. 
 
 If I could know that word or deed 
 Of mine had helped a soul in need, 
 Had given comfort, eased the smart 
 Of some poor, tortured, aching heart, 
 With what rare joy my heart would glow. 
 If I could know ! If I could know ! 
 
 If one should whisper in my ear, 
 
 "Your words have made me stronger, sir. 
 
 To fight this evil thing within. 
 
 That leads me often into sin" — 
 
 Life's darkened ways would brighter grow, 
 
 If I could know ! If I could know ! 
 
 Each day I ask the Lord to bless 
 Some act of mine to fruitfulness. 
 And though I know not how or where 
 He sends the answer to my prayer, 
 When I into His presence go. 
 Then I shall know ! Then I shall know ! 
 
 D 
 
 49 
 
CHAPTER SIXTH. 
 
 HOW SOME MEN HAVE BEEN WON TO 
 CHRIST. 
 
 One reason why so many people in the church 
 have been unsuccessful in Christian work is that 
 they make it too difficult a matter. One ought to 
 work for Christ as he plays golf, that is, with per- 
 fect freedom. No muscle must be on a tension 
 with the golf player. There must be perfect rhythm 
 in all his actions. This is a homely illustration of 
 the spirit of Christian work, yet a true one. Noth- 
 ing that savors of cant and nothing that even hints 
 at the unnatural must for a moment be expected to 
 win in the turning of lost men to Christ. Do your 
 work in the easiest way. Talk about your Savior in 
 the most natural fashion. Present Him to your 
 friends as your best fricntl. Show by your counte- 
 nance that He is even more than you claim for Him. 
 All this must be backed up by consistent Christian 
 living, and there will be little question of real suc- 
 cess in the effort. 
 
 There are, as a rule, many forces back of the one 
 in whose behalf we labor of which we do well to 
 take advantage. 
 
 The influence of a mother counts for more than 
 any human power. In the presence of a great 
 audience of men recently, I asked this question : 
 "How many here came to Christ as a direct or indi- 
 
 50 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 rect result of a mother's influence?" and two-thirds 
 of the Christian men in the audience immediately 
 sprang to their feet to testify to the power of the 
 holy living and consistent working of their mothers, 
 many of whom had passed over on the other shore. 
 A group of rough miners in Leadville, Colorado, 
 gave me a respectful hearing, but rather an indif- 
 ferent one, until I casually mentioned a mother's 
 love. Instantly there was a change in the facial 
 expression of almost every man present and here 
 and there tears were being brushed away from 
 hardened faces as the picture of their mothers 
 passed before them. In a successful meal's meet- 
 ing, conducted by Dr. Alderson in his own church, 
 a traveling man, quite young in years, arose and 
 told, very modestly and feelingly, the following 
 pathetic story: 
 
 "Before I left home to go on the road, I had 
 fallen into many bad habits, which gave my Chris- 
 tian mother great concern and anxiety. She feared 
 the result upon my life after I got beyond the in- 
 fluence of my home and came into contact with the 
 'drummer's' temptations. I was a card-player and 
 very fond of the amusement. I knew that many 
 'drummers' spent their leisure evenings at the hotel 
 and saloon card table, for I had myself often played 
 with them when the}- stopped over night in our 
 town. I felt that one of the first requisites of a 
 traveling man's outfit was a pack of cards. So the 
 afternoon before I was to leave home I purchased 
 a brand new deck, and went to bed that night leav- 
 ing them in my coat pocket. The next morning I 
 
 51 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 started on the road. Just as I was leaving home 
 my mother kissed me, then laid her face against my 
 cheek, and in a few words pleaded with me to be 
 a good boy and not forget my Christian home. I 
 felt her warm tears flow down my cheek. The first 
 night out found me at Winchester, Ky. Meeting 
 several traveling men during the day, we agreed to 
 put up at the same hotel, and after supper spend 
 the evening with cards. When the time came, as 
 we were seated around the table, one of the men 
 asked: 'Who has got a pack of cards?' Quickly 
 I responded: 'I've got the cards all right.' Thrust- 
 ing my hand into my coat pocket I pulled out a 
 little package wrapped exactly as I had put it into 
 my pocket the day before, and just about the same 
 size. Unwrapping it in the presence of the others, 
 all eyes fixed upon my action, what was my astonish- 
 ment and mortification to find instead of cards a 
 copy of the New Testament, which my mother 
 some time in the small hours of the night had 
 dexterously substituted for my cards. I blushed 
 and apologized, and confessed to my friends. We 
 were all deeply afifected. My dear mother broke 
 me not only of playmg cards, but she has been the 
 means of bringing me to Christ, and whenever now 
 I am tempted to do wrong, I can feel the hot tears 
 of my mother trickling down my face." 
 
 The influence of a father is not to be forgotten. 
 Too frequently in paying tribute to mother's devo- 
 tion do we forget to pay our respects to the con- 
 sistent living and the faithful working of the Chris- 
 tian fathers of our land. "How did you come to 
 
 52 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Christ?" said one minister to another. The quick 
 response was : "My father's wresthng for us at the 
 family altar did it. He used to call us by name in 
 his prayers, and I never could get away from his 
 praying." "And how did you come?" was asked 
 another, and the answer given was: "It was the 
 evening of the day on which my mother was buried, 
 and we children, with our broken-hearted father, 
 were sitting in the log house on the frontier before 
 a blazing fire. I saw my father cutting away a 
 small piece of wood and was interested to see that 
 he had fashioned a cross which he could hold be- 
 tween his thumb and finger. Then holding it up 
 before us in the flickering light, he told us the story 
 of Jesus Christ cradled in a manger, living in Naza- 
 reth, preaching in Galilee, sufifering in the Garden 
 and dying on just such a cross as he held up before 
 us. In an impassioned way, he called us to our 
 mother's Savior and because of his own holy liv- 
 ing, that night every child came to Christ." 
 
 I would like to pay tribute to my own father's 
 devotion to his children in this connection. As a 
 motherless boy, temptations came upon me thick and 
 fast. My father one day called me to his side and 
 said: "My son, I have always tried to live as I 
 should before you. If in any way I have failed, I 
 beg your pardon and ask your forgiveness. May 
 I -say to you, my boy, that if you ever disgrace 
 your father's name, and are unworthy of your angel 
 mother's love, you will kill me." One night there 
 came to me a sharp, sudden temptation to do at 
 least a questionable thing. I started down the street 
 
 53 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 of the city where I then Hved, when suddenly,, as I 
 came to a street corner, and was just about to turn 
 into the way which would, I believe, have inevitably 
 meant death, there came up before me the words of 
 my father, and I think that I am a minister to-day 
 because of a father's devotion to his children and 
 his earnest desire to hold us for Christ. 
 
 While preaching in Chicago, a young man was 
 most hopefully converted. He was a graduate of a 
 southern college, had been admitted to the bar, and 
 while giving every evidence of achieving success in 
 his work, he was restless, dissatisfied and in great 
 danger of being wrecked morally. In our meeting 
 I used the illustration of Jonah attempting to go 
 to Tarshish when God wanted him to proceed to 
 Nineveh, and I said that because of this everything 
 was against him. This brought the young man to 
 a realization of his condition, he saw whither he 
 was drifting, realized why it was that he had been 
 so disturbed and distressed, and by an act of his will 
 he stepped out of almost midnight darkness into the 
 clear light of the knowledge of God. The next day 
 he gave this touching testimony m the presence of 
 a great number of men: "Gentlemen," said he, "I 
 have had peace and blessing during the last twenty- 
 four hours, but may I say that 1 believe the only 
 thing that has influenced my life during these years 
 of my wandering and kept me back from doing 
 many a thing that I might otherwise have done, 
 has been the memory of my father." Then he drew 
 from his pocl>et his father's picture, and holding it 
 up he said, shaking with great emotion : "This is 
 
 54 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 my father's picture. I always have thought it the 
 noblest and best picture in the world. He has been 
 dead for five years, and during all that time this 
 face has haunted me. I knew that he wanted me 
 to be a Christian and preach the Gospel, but I hesi- 
 tated and grieved him inexpressibly. During all 
 these years I could not get away from his look. But 
 during the past twenty-four hours, everything has 
 been changed. I am now looking towards that day 
 when I shall see him once again with that happy 
 smile once more upon his features, for I have de- 
 termined to preach the Gospel." 
 
 These are but a few illustrations. They could be 
 multiplied indefinitely. Given a boy with a true 
 mother and a noble father, both of them Christians, 
 and there is every reason to believe that the ultimate 
 winning of that boy to Christ will be almost abso- 
 lutely certain. 
 
 The experiences through which men pass are not 
 to be lost sight of when attempting to win them to 
 Jesus Christ. The loss of a mother, an experience 
 in sickness, the sudden accident which almost meant 
 death, these things are as a rule to be taken into 
 account when we attempt to win the lost to Him. 
 One of my best friends in New York, an honored 
 officer of a strong church, once told me this story 
 which aptly illustrates my point. He said, "When 
 I was a boy of about twelve years of age I went with 
 my parents and a brother who was two years older 
 than myself, to spend the summer vacation at a lake 
 in the northern part of the State of New York. 
 This lake was like home to me, for from my earliest 
 
 55 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 infancy my family had been passing the summers 
 there. My brother and myself had been in the habit 
 of going out on the lake to fish, but always accom- 
 panied by an older person. The day that I am 
 writing about I shall never forget. My brother 
 and myself had been more than anxious to go fish- 
 ing by ourselves and with boyhood's enthusiasm be- 
 lieved if allowed to do so we would show what 
 wonderful fishermen we really were and would re- 
 turn with a string of fish that would fairly astonish 
 our parents and the other guests of the hotel where 
 we were stopping. After numerous entreaties, our 
 father had finally given his consent, with the distinct 
 promise on our part that whenever it became neces- 
 sary for us to change seats, we would first take the 
 boat ashore before attempting to do so, and on no 
 account would we stand up in the boat. The event- 
 ful day finally arrived, and bright and early, with 
 our poles, tackle and bait, we got into our boat and 
 started. We kept our promise that we had made, 
 not to stand up in the boat, and all went well. The 
 time came for us to return, and as my brother rowed 
 the boat back to the hotel we discovered that during 
 our absence an old scow, loaded with wood, had ar- 
 rived and been tied up to the end of the dock. Then 
 it was that I forgot the promise that up to this time 
 had been so carefully kept, and I said to my brother, 
 'You row quietly by the old scow and I will step out 
 on it and run up to the house and let the people 
 know we are home, and you take the boat around 
 to the shore and put her up.' I stood up, I made a 
 step, the boat slipped away from me, I lost my 
 
 56 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 balance, and in an instant I found myself unable to 
 swim in twenty feet of water. Quickly I went to 
 the bottom ; with eyes closed from fright, I came to 
 the surface only to sink again. I tried in every way 
 to swim, but every efifort only made my case more 
 hopeless. I think every sin that I had committed 
 came into my mind, and foremost was the fact that 
 I had disobeyed my father. Presently I realized 
 that the next time I would sink would be the last, 
 when suddenly I heard a voice ringing in my ears, 
 'Catch hold of my hand,' then my eyes were opened 
 and I saw my brother, who had backed up the boat, 
 leaning as far as he could over the stern of the boat 
 and with outstretched hand trying to reach me, I 
 caught hold of his hand, when he drew me gently 
 towards him, and then putting his arms around me 
 he lifted me, with such a strength as I never knew 
 he possessed, safely into the boat and took me to the 
 shore. Years passed by, I grew to be a man, I mar- 
 ried and had a family of my own. I was not a 
 Christian ; far from it. On account of my family I 
 was a pewholder in one of the prominent churches 
 of New York. I had turned a deaf ear to the re- 
 ligious teachings of my parents. I had grown in- 
 different. I came to the place where I really did 
 not care for God or man. One night, when I went 
 home from business, I found waiting for me in my 
 home the pastor of the church I attended. He said 
 something like this: 'I have come to ask you if 
 you will come up to church Monday night. We are 
 
 to hold a week of special services. Mr. M , the 
 
 evangelist, is to be with us, and I want you to come.' 
 
 57 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 I was angry for what I called unwarranted inter- 
 ference, and so I said : 'Dr. , thank you, I will 
 
 promise you not to come. I am glad to see you on 
 any other subject, but on this subject let me say I 
 go to church on Sunday ; on other days I want to 
 be left alone.' How many times have I wished that 
 I had never so spoken to him ! 
 
 "Monday night came. I went home and found 
 my wife ready to go to church. I didn't want her 
 to go alone, neither was I willing to go, and so a 
 compromise was effected. I was to take her to the 
 church door and call for her an hour later. She 
 went into the service. I stood outside. It was a 
 bitter cold night, and at times I felt as if I would 
 perish, and yet I would not go in. Finally I could 
 stand it no longer, and I decided that I would go 
 in and take a back seat and get warm. Thank God 
 I got warm that night, and I have been warm ever 
 since. As the evangelist was speaking it seemed as 
 if he knew me. He pictured my case exactly, dis- 
 obedient to God, indifferent to His word, forgetful 
 of the prayers and religious influence that parents 
 had surrounded me with in childhood. Then there 
 flashed through my heart and mind the picture of 
 my boyhood's days, as I struggled in the water and 
 I could see myself now sinking in the waves of sin 
 and, believing this was my last opportunity, that 
 soon I would be lost, then I could hear the voice of 
 Jesus say, 'Take hold of My hand.' By faith my eyes 
 were opened. I saw Him then in all His beauty and 
 heard Him say, 'Come unto mc' By faith I took 
 His hand ; He has put His great loving arms around 
 
 58 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 nie, and with a strength I never even knew my elder 
 brother possessed, has Hfted me out of my distresses 
 and is now guiding and taking me safely to the 
 Heavenly shore. 
 
 "Some fifteen years have now passed since I found 
 Christ. A few years ago I visited the old lake up 
 north. I rowed by the old dock. A similar old 
 wood scow was again tied up to the dock. As I told 
 my wife and children who were with me in the boat 
 of my narrow escape from drowning when I was a 
 boy I also told them of my narrow escape in later 
 years from being lost in the waves of sin. To-day 
 we have a happy home, every member of the family 
 is a member of God's family, and Jesus Christ is a 
 welcome guest in our home. I have been telling 
 the simple story of Christ's love for sinful men ever 
 since He saved me, and I expect to tell it right along 
 until I shall see Him face to face." 
 
 59 
 
CHAPTER SEVENTH. 
 
 A WORD WITH THE HEAD OF THE 
 HOUSE. 
 
 "For I know him, that he will command his chil- 
 dren, and his household after him." Genesis i8: 19. 
 
 Riding through the country not long ago with 
 one of the bishops of the Methodist church, I said 
 to him : "What is the special truth to-day needing 
 emphasis in our teaching?" He responded quickly: 
 "A better home life." This being true, there is no 
 one of greater importance in the consideration of 
 this subject than the head of the household, the 
 father and the husband. You always do well to tie 
 to the man in whom the Lord has confidence. He 
 loves us all and will continue to love us unto the end, 
 but He trusts only a few, it would seem. The world 
 usually bases its opinion of us upon our reputation, 
 God always bases His upon character. He is truly 
 a great man and a good man of whom God could 
 say as in the text above quoted : "For I know him, 
 that he will command his children and his house- 
 hold after him." 
 
 There are two or three things in particular in the 
 story of Abram which should be remembered, for 
 they show God's appreciation of him : 
 
 First. When Lot was separated from Abram 
 and he stood alone, Abram permitted God to choose 
 for him. You can only fully trust that man who 
 allows God this privilege. 
 
 60 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Second. Do not forget that picture of him as he 
 sat at the door of the tent at noon, when three men 
 in shining garments stood before him ; they were 
 angels. The principal one was the Angel of the 
 Covenant or the Angel of the Lord. Happy that 
 man in whose home the Lord loves to tarry and 
 in whose home there is nothing to forbid His resting 
 for a little while. How would it be in your ov/n 
 home? His will is that husbands should love their 
 wives, that wives should obey their husbands, that 
 children should honor their parents, that parents 
 should not provoke their children to wrath, and He 
 cannot tarry where there is the least contention or 
 strife. Have you noticed the question that the angel 
 of the Lord put to Abram : ''Where is Sarai, thy 
 wife?" he said. How did He know that he had a 
 wife, or that her name was Sarai? For the very 
 reason that the eyes of God are upon us always. 
 He is taking note of all we do. He weighs our 
 motives and reads our thoughts and numbers our 
 households, and Abram stood this test, so the scrip- 
 ture was true of him. 
 
 Third. There is some significance in the fact that 
 Abram had what Lot did not have. Three angels 
 came to him, but only two to Lot. The Angel of 
 the Covenant did not go into Sodom. Both of these 
 men, Abram and Lot, were God's chosen ones, but 
 the difference was that Abram dwelt in Canaan 
 while Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain. We may 
 as well remember that God only dwells with the man 
 whose life is according to His will. What an il- 
 lustration Christ was in this respect ! "I come to do 
 
 6i 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Thy will," He said. This was His Hfe. "My meat 
 is to do Thy will." It was His food. "He that 
 doeth the will of God the same is my brother and 
 sister and mother." In that society He lived and 
 lives to-day. "Teach me to do Thy will." It was 
 His whole education. "I delight to do Thy will." 
 It was His constant pleasure. "He that doeth the 
 will of God abideth forever." It makes provision 
 for our eternity. 
 
 I know how much of holy sentiment there is about 
 the name of mother, and I would not detract in the 
 least from it, but have you ever noticed how the 
 Bible exalts the love of a father? When the tender- 
 ness of God is to be pictured it is in these words: 
 "Like as a father pitieth his children," and again 
 in the story of Jacob, when he said : "Me ye have 
 bereft of my children," and still again in the sob 
 of David, when he cried out: "O Absalom, Absa- 
 lom !" or in the picture in the New Testament of 
 the father who wailed for the prodigal to return. 
 The records of the church have been made glorious 
 by the stories of the faithfulness of fathers as well 
 as the devotion of mothers. In the autobiography 
 of John G. Paton, the missionary to the New 
 Hebrides, the great missionary attributes most of 
 the blessing of his life to the influence of his father. 
 The boy is on his way to Glasgow to begin his life 
 work, and he says : 
 
 "My father walked with me six miles. His coun- 
 sel, his tears, his heavenly conversation are as fresh 
 as if they happened yesterday. Tears are on my 
 cheeks as freely now as then whenever memory 
 
 62 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 steals me away to the scene. The last half mile 
 was walked in unbroken silence, with his hat in his 
 hand, his long hair flowing- upon his shoulders, his 
 lips moving in silent prayer, tears were falling from 
 his eyes, when our eyes met. Suddenly we stopped, 
 and he said : 'God bless you, my son ; your father's 
 God prosper you and keep you from evil.' Unable 
 to say more, we embraced and parted, and when I 
 came to the bend in the road and looked back I saw 
 that he was still standing and looking, and then I 
 climbed to the dyke and looked and he w^as still 
 waiting, and I vowed a vow that I would never do a 
 thing that would disgrace such a father, and the 
 memory of him drove me to do God's will as he 
 did it." 
 
 It is my prayerful hope that the picture of such 
 a father might inspire us all. The Bible teaches that 
 every man must be a priest in his own household. 
 If so he must keep himself unspotted from the 
 world. "I charge you," said a dying mother to her 
 husband, "bring all these children home with you," 
 and that is God's charge to every father in this 
 world. 
 
 There are certain reasons why God could say : 
 "I know him." He could remember how he had 
 been living back in Ur, or in the days of idolatry, 
 when He called him as He afterwards called Elijah, 
 Peter, Matthew, and still later summoned Cromwell 
 from his farm and Luther from the cloister, when 
 the call means separation from the fatherland and 
 his kinsmen, and that he must be a stranger in a 
 strange land, and it is written in the Hebrews when 
 
 63 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 he was called he obeyed and that made him a hero. 
 God always trusts men when they obey Him and 
 no one can ever command until first he learns to 
 obey. No home can be happy unless the children 
 obey the parents, and no home can be a true home 
 unless the parents obey God. Have you obeyed God 
 in your home? In His sight you are a priest; have 
 you maintained your position? In the life of John 
 G. Paton we are told that the custom of morning 
 and evening prayer was ever maintained in his 
 father's household; until the day of his death, at 
 seventy-seven years, he failed not, and when the last 
 day of his life came he was heard repeating the 
 psalm and breaking forth into prayer, and his dis- 
 tinguished son says . 
 
 "I never can remember that any day ever passed 
 when this was omitted. No hurry for the market, 
 no rush for business, no arrival of friends, no trou- 
 ble or joy ever prevented our kneeling about the 
 altar, while the high priest led us to God and offered 
 himself and his children there. The worst woman 
 in the town where we lived crept up to that window 
 and heard my father pleading for sinners in his 
 prayer and was saved." 
 
 Oh, for a home so full of God that the overflow 
 of it can lead a soul to Christ ! God was not shut 
 up to the present or the past in knowing Abram, 
 but the future was as an open book. He knew that 
 He would stand as an intercessor for Sodom, and 
 He knew exactly what kind of intercession that 
 would be. It is a pattern for us to-day. There was 
 real concern for Lot. 
 
 64 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 An old Scotch woman's son Walter had gone 
 away and sent his mother no letter, so that she 
 did not know whether he was dead or alive. Every 
 night, as she prayed, she would throw open the door 
 and cry aloud, "Come home, Walter; your mother 
 misses you so," and every morning, for twenty 
 >'ears, at the break of day, she climbed to the top of 
 the hill and looked in the direction in which he had 
 gone and prayed for his return. Abram's concern 
 was like this ; there was real prayer in his interces- 
 sion. He waited until he was alone with God. Every 
 father ought to have such an experience as this. 
 
 Referring again to the life of John G. Paton, the 
 great missionary says : "Our house consisted of two 
 rooms, one front and one back. There was a kind 
 of closet between, and thither, three times a day, my 
 father retired and shut the door. We children got 
 to understand and know by a kind of instinct that 
 the prayer was being poured out there after the 
 manner of the high priests in the holy of holies. We 
 occasionally heard his pathetic tones pleading for us, 
 and we got so we walked past the door on tip-toe 
 for fear we might disturb him." No wonder a home 
 like that has blessed the world. 
 
 God also knew Abram in that other real test of 
 his faith when He said: "Take thy son, thy only 
 son, Isaac." Isaac was the dearest thing in the 
 v/orld to him. Suppose God should touch that which 
 is best in your life, v/hat would you say? If any 
 one could rebel under such circumstances there must 
 be something wrong. I can see Abram and Isaac 
 starting early in the morning, for three days they 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 journey, and then they see the mountain of sacrifice, 
 and Abram said : "Tarry here." When Isaac asked 
 him, saying, "Where is the lamb?" the father's re- 
 ply was: "God will prepare His sacrifice." He 
 placed Isaac upon the altar, raised the knife which 
 flashed in the sunlight, and suddenly God said : 
 "Abram, lay not thy hand upon the child. I know 
 that thou fearest God, thou hast not withheld thy 
 son." It may be that there is something between 
 you and your children that is keeping your child 
 back from Christ. 
 
 A father and a son heard the minister preach 
 when the subject was "The Judgment," The boy 
 was profoundly moved and walked home from the 
 church without saying a word, made his way to his 
 room, threw himself upon his bed, and a little later 
 heard his father whistling and singing. He rose 
 from his bed and said: "It cannot be true; if my 
 father realized that I was lost he could not whistle 
 and he would not sing." And when that boy came 
 to manhood, instead of casting his influence as he 
 might have done with the Evangelical church, he 
 became one of the greatest leaders of Unitarianism 
 that the world has ever known. It may be that 
 you have not yet yielded up everything you have to 
 God, and for that reason your home life is not all 
 that it should be. Never until spirit, soul and body 
 are absolutely controlled by God may we expect Him 
 to dwell in us in fullness and use us for His glory. 
 It may be you are living in what may be properly 
 called a backsliding condition; if so, then let it be 
 ever remembered that God will not send His bless- 
 
 66 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ing upon you until you come back into close fellow- 
 ship with Him. 
 
 I once heard Major Whittle give the following 
 illustration : "At a weekly prayer meeting where 
 'Separation from the world and consecration to God' 
 had been presented as the topic for consideration, a 
 gentleman related the following experience: 
 
 " 'I came to this city several years ago a profess- 
 ing Christian. I was a member of such a church, 
 a regular attendant at the prayer meeting, a teacher 
 in the Sunday School, and maintained daily worship 
 in my family. But gradually I became engrossed in 
 business ; and the ambition to be rich took possession 
 of me. I gave up my Sunday School class — too 
 tired when Sunday came to attend to it; and the 
 prayer meeting was neglected for the same reason. 
 Soon family worship was also dropped, and I went 
 on for some years, a merely nominal Christian, at- 
 tending church on Sunday, but without any real 
 communion with God, and without any real happi- 
 ness of soul. God often spoke to me, and I expected 
 His chastening hand to come in some way. At last 
 it came. I had but one child — a little daughter — the 
 idol of my heart. One evening I was unexpectedly 
 at home. My business usually occupied my even- 
 ings, and I was very little with my family, and they 
 had not looked for my coming. My little daughter, 
 much to my annoyance, was absent; and when her 
 mother told me she had permitted her to go into a 
 neighbor's for an hour, I was unreasonably angry, 
 and sent for her, and declared that if she went there 
 again I should punish her, 
 
 67 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 " 'Several weeks after this T was again unex- 
 pectedly at home ; and again my little girl was away. 
 My wife was much troubled in having to tell me 
 that being quite sure that I had no real objection to 
 her going into our neighbor's where she was under 
 the very best influence — and not thinking I should 
 be at home — she had allowed her to go. I sent for 
 the little girl and chastised her. Just before going 
 to her room she came, and between sobs, said: 
 "Papa, I am sorry I disobeyed you. I thought per- 
 haps you would be willing if mamma was. And 
 Mr. Smith prays with his children every night and 
 I went in to pray for you, papa." The next day 
 my little girl was laid up with scarlet fever ; and in 
 three weeks I followed her little body to the grave. 
 I came back to the house, I trust, a humbled, 
 chastened man. My family altar was again erected, 
 my place in the prayer meeting again filled ; and by 
 God's help I purpose henceforth to live for Him. 
 But, my friends, my getting into the world, and 
 what it has cost me, is a sad memory. May God 
 lead you to accept His will without waiting for the 
 discipline.' " 
 
 If every father in the church were right with God 
 it is absolutely certain that we should soon find the 
 church throbbing with the mighty power of God. 
 
 68 
 
CHAPTER EIGHTH. 
 
 A NEVER FAILING PRINCIPLE. 
 
 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of 
 God is eternal Hfe through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." — Romans 6:2j. 
 
 There is no principle more unfailing than this. 
 It is one of God's inevitable laws and it is the 
 more emphasized because it is stated by Paul, the 
 Apostle, and is found in the Epistle to the Romans. 
 This whole letter is a masterful argument and Paul 
 himself was a mighty writer. No verse in Romans 
 could properly be taken separately for treatment 
 or studied out of its connection. Paul is such a 
 logician and his Epistle is such an argument that it 
 must be studied as a whole to be appreciated. 
 
 Each writer or speaker has words peculiar to 
 his own vocabulary. 
 
 Peter's word is ^'precious." He speaks of "prec- 
 ious promises," "precious blood," and a "precious- 
 Savior." 
 
 Paul's words most frequently used are, "for," 
 "but," and "therefore." The two former are to be 
 found in the scripture above quoted. 
 
 There are three "therefores" in the Epistle to 
 the Romans which should receive our special atten- 
 tion, and these three stand out like great moim- 
 tain peaks in his argument. 
 
 Romans 5; /. "Therefore being justified by 
 
 69 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 faith we have peace with God through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 Romans 8: i. "There is therefore now no con- 
 demnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who 
 walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." 
 
 Romans 12: i. "I beseech you therefore, breth- 
 ren, by the mercies of God that ye present your 
 bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
 which is your reasonable service." 
 
 In each case we must study all that precedes 
 if we would appreciate his conclusions. In the first 
 chapter of Romans he is giving a striking descrip- 
 tion of sin. No better picture of the condition of the 
 human heart has ever been drawn. It is said that 
 when one of the missionaries was translating this 
 scripture into Chinese his Chinese amanuensis 
 refused to continue the work when the first chapter 
 of Romans was reached because he said he would 
 not be guilty of making known publicly the condi- 
 tion of his own people. 
 
 Following the picture of sin is the reference to 
 Israel, and following this reference Christ is offered 
 for our sins, and because of faith in Him we are 
 justified. In the 6th chapter the writer strikes a note 
 of warning, calling attention to the license which 
 some people might feel it possible to indulge in 
 because of justification, and at the close of this 
 chapter he uses the scripture with which this chap- 
 ter is introduced, "For the wages of sin is death." 
 
 The difference between wages on one side and a 
 gift on the other side, the one calling for untiring 
 energy and almost ceaseless toiling, the other ac- 
 
 70 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 cepted with no effort put forth at all except the 
 outreaching hand to receive the gift, presents to 
 us the difference between the two masters, one the 
 Christian's Master, the other the one whom the 
 world serves. 
 
 The background of Paul's picture here is sin. 
 We cannot eliminate it from our consideration, if 
 we do other errors instantly creep into our think- 
 ing and ultimately to our living, lax ideas of sin 
 produce fruit in lax ideas concerning the necessity 
 for an atonement. Sin is not simply an error, nor 
 is it a mistake, but it is a damnable thing, too black 
 to be described in human language. So great was 
 it in the thought of God that it demanded an infin- 
 ite sacrifice, the blood of bulls and goats could not 
 longer suffice. God pity the man who in the face 
 of such a thought trifles with sin, encourages its 
 practice in his life and seeks to cover it over in 
 his heart. In the awful havoc which it has wrought 
 it changes the expression of one's countenance. 
 
 The story of the two paintings by Leonardo da 
 Vinci is one that may be paralleled every day in 
 actual life. The great artist had painted the face 
 of a lovely child, and was so fascinated by the 
 picture that he kept it constantly before his gaze 
 in his studio. The sight of the beautiful child's 
 face tranquilized his soul in sorrow or in anger. 
 He resolved to paint a picture which should be its 
 opposite. Long and patiently he searched for a 
 model, but could find no face bad enough to parallel 
 in hideousness the angelic beauty of the young face 
 in his studio. Many years afterwards, when he 
 
 71 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 had given up the search, he looked upon the almost 
 inhuman countenance of a criminal, lying in des- 
 pair on the floor of a prison cell. At length he had 
 found the model for whom he had been look- 
 ing. He painted the terrible face, and then learned 
 to his amazement that the crime-hardened man and 
 the angel child were one and the same. Brutal 
 passions had transformed the seraph into a demon. 
 The body had been refashioned by the mind. 
 
 It undermines character. I never have known 
 of one making a conspicious public failure that in- 
 vestigation did not prove the fact that the one fail- 
 ing had begun with the commission of some almost 
 trifling sin and the one transgression made the next 
 easier until at last the wreck was complete. 
 
 In India the white ants burrow their way into 
 the rafters of the cottages. So small is their work 
 that it is not noticed by the casual passer by, but 
 when the storm comes the house which seemed 
 strong falls almost with the first touch of the wind 
 and the wreck is complete. • The work began with 
 the burrowing of an ant hole. So do men fail. 
 
 // breaks up households. I went one day to call 
 upon a young business man to ask him to come to 
 Christ. I knew his heart was tender because of 
 the recent death of his wife, but while he received 
 me graciously he declined to accept Christ, saying 
 that he had no need of Him, his character was 
 strong and his every inclination against sin he 
 said. But one day my telephone bell rang sharply 
 and I was called back into the same house to com- 
 fort four little children who were not only mother- 
 
 72 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 less but worse than fatherless. In a down town 
 hotel the father was lying dead by his own hand. 
 Shortly after our conversation a strong temptation 
 had overpowered him, he had changed one figure 
 in his books and he died a defaulter to the extent 
 of a quarter of a million of dollars. His children 
 were scattered almost literally to the four winds, 
 their names were changed that they might forget 
 their father, and he is in Eternity awaiting Judg- 
 ment. 
 
 This is sill. It not only blights the offender 
 himself but it injures others, and this is the sad 
 thing about sin. Dr. Talmage once said there were 
 five acts in the rum tragedy. 
 
 Act the First. 
 
 A graduation scene where a young man gain- 
 ing the honors of his class and the applause of the 
 commencement audience steps forth into life with 
 every prospect of winning a victory. 
 
 Act the Second. 
 
 The sound of marriage bells is heard and the 
 whole sky seems bright with promise that the life 
 thus nobly begun shall go on with increasing power 
 and strength. 
 
 Act the Third. 
 
 A cloud has begun to appear in the sky and the 
 man whose future was so bright is beginning to go 
 down under the touch of sin. 
 
 73 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Act the fourth. 
 
 A woman waiting in a poorly furnished room 
 with a child crying at her knees. She is looking 
 and listening for the return of one who now comes 
 home with unsteady step, but she waits in vain. 
 
 Act the Fifth. 
 
 Three graves in a dark place. The grave of a 
 child who died of neglect; the grave of a wife and 
 mother, who died of a broken heart ; the grave of a 
 father and husband, who sent himself into eternity 
 and learns to-day that the wages of sin is death. 
 
 It is small in its beginning, so small indeed that 
 men do not fear it. They think that they can begin 
 when they choose and stop when they please, but 
 they wake up one day to learn that they have been 
 forging chains of habit and are bound hand and 
 foot. While seated in the office of a friend, who was 
 an official on the Southern Pacific Railroad, he 
 asked me if I had seen the big trees in California, 
 and when I told him that I had simply seen them 
 from the car window, he showed me a measuring 
 line on which was printed his affidavit that he had 
 made measurements which were astonishing. The 
 circumference of one tree was 105 feet and the diam- 
 eter 35 feet, while the height was something enorm- 
 ous. He said to me: "These big trees are sermons 
 in themselves. They are the oldest things we 
 know and they never die except when some 
 outside force is brought to bear upon them. 
 How large would you think," said he, "the seed 
 
 74 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 of a big tree might be ?" And I answered, "Judging 
 from the size I should say it might be as large as 
 a pumpkin." He smiled and held out before me 
 on a piece of paper the seeds of the great trees, and 
 they were smaller than a mustard seed. So it is 
 with sin. It begins with an evil imagination, an 
 impure thought and unholy ambition, but the end 
 is death. 
 
 It is deceiving in its influence. This is true of 
 some diseases. Traveling through New Mexico and 
 Arizona recently, where very many people are the 
 subjects of the dread disease of consumption, I 
 failed to find one who felt the danger of his position. 
 The disease is said to be flattering and the subject 
 thinks that he is growing better until suddenly he is 
 face to face with eternity. How many men there are 
 who will tell you that they can go just so far and 
 stop ! How few there are that expect ever to be 
 lost! 
 
 I have read that the Vampire Bat in the West 
 Indies fans its victim to sleep while it sucks away 
 its life blood. This is sin and its wages is death. 
 
 It is sure in its progress. For every man in Christ 
 and out, the scripture should be plainly written, 
 "Be sure your sin will find you out." There is no 
 escape from this ; hide it as securely as you please 
 and one day there will be a Resurrection. It will 
 come at the time when you least expect it and also 
 at the time when you can least afford to meet it. 
 In the island of Ceylon I have been told that there 
 are more than forty serpents whose sting is deadly. 
 There is one at least which if it should sting your 
 
 75 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 hand or foot you would be dead in a minute, and 
 yet death is not more sure as the result of the ser- 
 pent's sting than it is sure as a result of the prac- 
 tice of sin. 
 
 It is degrading in its influence, it can tear down 
 the strongest character and blight and mar the hap- 
 piest future. The story is told of a man in New York 
 City whose position was all that man could desire. 
 Under the stress of temptation he began to fail, lie 
 went from bad to worse, moved from one house 
 to another, each time his apartments growing 
 smaller. He became cruel in his treatment of his 
 wife and children and one day as he returned, mad- 
 dened by the power of strong drink, his little two- 
 year-old child ran to meet him, when picking him 
 up in his fury, he threw him from him, the child 
 struck upon the stone step and they picked him up 
 dead. This is sin, and the wages of sin is death. 
 
 It is the worst sort of bondage. That poor deluded 
 man who shot Andrew H. Green, the father of 
 Greater New York, gave as an explanation the fol- 
 lowing: "I used to be a good man," he said, "but 
 I sold myself to the devil and he made me do what 
 I have done. I could not help myself." The rav- 
 ing of this poor soul is a picture of many another 
 man. If you doubt it yourself, try to break some 
 habit and to free yourself from some sin and see 
 how it will pursue you. 
 
 It is sure in its punishment, its wages are some- 
 thing terrific. Not only the sleepless nights, the 
 condemning conscience, the weakened character, the 
 blighted future, the lost reputation, these things in 
 
 76 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 themselves are bad enough, but the future baffles 
 description. No word of mine could paint it black 
 enough. The wages of sin is death. 
 
 The question may be asked, "What is the great- 
 est sin?" There may be a difference of opinion 
 concerning this among men. Some men count 
 drunkenness the greatest, others imagine impurity 
 to be the chiefest of all sins, still others suggest 
 that it may be dishonesty, but the word of God has 
 declared that the greatest of all sins is the rejec- 
 tion of Jesus Christ, and when men stand face to 
 face with God in judgment the question will be not 
 concerning one's impurity, dishonesty or intemper- 
 ance, but rather this, "What did you do with Jesus 
 Christ ?" and upon the answer to this question man 
 will stand or fall at the Judgment bar. 
 
 What is the remedy which can be offered to meet 
 this awful condition? There are two suggestions 
 made ; one is born on earth, the other sent down 
 from Heaven. The first is the suggestion of 
 man. We are told that if our environment be 
 only changed our condition will be so much 
 the better. It will be an easy thing for us then 
 to break away from the power of sin. This 
 certainly is not true. If environment had such 
 power Adam and Eve never would have sinned, for 
 they lived in Paradise; Judas never would have 
 fallen, for he was so near to Jesus Christ that it 
 was possible for him to touch Him, to see plainly 
 the expression of His countenance and almost to 
 hear the beating of His heart, and yet he sold his 
 Lord and sent his soul to Hell. 
 
 77 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 We are told again that if character only be 
 strengthened and conduct be rightly ordered the 
 result will be the breaking away of sin. In 
 other words, we are commanded to do our best and 
 God will look with favor upon us. But this cannot 
 be true, for we are sinners and our sin has been 
 against God, and many of those whom Jesus Christ 
 came to save have lost all power of will, have 
 almost lost the desire to be good and true. He is 
 a mighty Savior to all such. Their characters are 
 ruined ; they can do nothing of themselves. It is 
 a good thing to suggest to each person who would 
 save the sinner that if his method of salvation is 
 to prove effective he ought to try it upon those w-ho 
 are the lowest down and the most depraved. If 
 it fails with them it is of no use to others. Our 
 Gospel is for all such, the gift of God is eternal 
 life, and if the poor depraved sinner has simply 
 strength enough to reach forth his hand as he w^ould 
 put it out to take a cup of water he may be saved. 
 
 God's remedy which was decided upon in Heaven 
 is described in the text. The gift of God is eternal 
 life. In the scripture we are told, "Christ died for 
 our sins," and that settles the sin question judici- 
 ally. God could not look with indifference upon 
 the smallest transgression and in order that he 
 might be just and the Justifier of all them that 
 believe, He so loved the world that he gave His 
 only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish but have everlasting life. There- 
 fore, if we would be saved let us accept the gift, 
 eternal life — which is only another way of saying, 
 
 78 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 "the life of the eternal." This life is in us ; by 
 means of it we are able to overcome temptation. 
 It is in us ; because of it we can bear up in trial. 
 
 When Commander Booth-Tucker was paying a 
 tribute to his noble wife at the funeral service held 
 in Carnegie Hall, New York, he said: "I was one 
 day talking to a man in Chicago, asking him to 
 come to Christ, when he said, 'If God had taken 
 your beautiful wife and left you alone with your 
 children would you still believe in Him ?' And, said 
 the great Salvation Army officer, "If that man is 
 in the audience to-day I want to say to him that 
 God has taken my beautiful wife and left me alone 
 with my children and He has never been nearer to 
 me than now and I have never loved Him more." 
 This is really being a Christian, and the strength 
 to bear up under such trial is the gift of God. 
 
 He is in us making it possible for us to live as we 
 ought to live. If we could accustom ourselves to or- 
 dering our days by some particular statement of 
 scripture we would be surprised to see how bright 
 the day would be. Let the motto of one day be, 
 "Bear ye one another's burdens," or the truth for 
 another day, "Let each esteem others better than 
 himself." And he who practices the presence of God 
 in such a way and lives according to the teachings of 
 Christ will find the days of earth to be days of 
 Heaven and his character transfigured. 
 
 I would like to make an appeal to all who may 
 read these words and such an appeal as might stir 
 the emotions and quicken the memory, perhaps 
 bring before them the vision of a mother or the ser- 
 
 79 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 mon of the preacher of olden days as a result of 
 which the reader might be saved. If you go to a 
 Rescue Mission and ask the most depraved to tell 
 you what it is that has saved him from final destruc- 
 tion and despair he will tell you, "My mother's 
 prayer or my father's hope or my Sunday School 
 teacher's influence." 
 
 There came one day into the city of St. Louis a 
 Christian woman from the country, and she asked 
 one of the ministers to permit her to accompany 
 him to the hospital, as she had not visited such an 
 institution before. She carried on her arm a basket 
 of honey-suckle and she wanted to place a spray 
 upon each cot in the hospital ward. I am quite 
 sure that the fragrance of the honey-suckle could 
 stir many a sacred memory. One of my friends 
 told me one day in New York that the odor of a 
 honey-suckle always took her back to her child- 
 hood's home in the south and she never could think 
 of it without weeping. Passing from cot to cot 
 the country woman placed the flowers wherever 
 possible in the hands of the sufferers. She came 
 to one cot where a screen had been placed about it. 
 This was a new experience for her. She put the 
 honey-suckle in the dying girl's hand and was just 
 turning away when she saw the lips moving and 
 bending down she heard the girl whispering, 
 "Mother, I smell the fragrance of the honey-suckle 
 outside my window," and when she looked the sec- 
 ond time she cried out, "Margaret, my child, my 
 child," for it was her own daughter who had wan- 
 dered away and was dying because of her sin. It 
 
 80 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 was the fragrance of the honey-suckle that aroused 
 the girl and resuUcd not only in reunion with her 
 mother but in the winning of her soul to Christ. 
 I am afraid when I think of men delaying the 
 acceptance of Jesus Christ and see them trifling 
 with sin. I would that I might bring to your mem- 
 ory a picture of His suffering and dying and the 
 plea made to you by some one in other days. 
 
 Not long ago in California I was told of the sal- 
 mon fishermen who work at the mouth of the 
 Columbia river. Hundreds of little fishing boats 
 put out at sunset, each having two fishermen on 
 board. They sail to the spot where they are to 
 work, then set their nets as the tide is coming in 
 and boat and net drift upward with the tide. Then 
 the tide turns and the boat drifts back again to the 
 sea. When the morning breaks it is seen that the 
 boat is near the breakers. The fishermen go as far 
 as they can, then begin to draw in the nets, drifting 
 all the time towards death. One fisherman is seen 
 to stop. Something holds his net. It is full, evidently, 
 and he tarries a moment too long attempting to 
 draw it in at any cost, and before he can escape 
 the boat is drawn outward again towards the sea 
 and the fisherman is lost, all because of the mo- 
 ment's delay. So I lift my cry to every halting, 
 hesitating man, telling him that "the wages of sin 
 is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." I 
 beseech you therefore, reader, to take the gift. 
 
 8i 
 
CHAPTER NINTH. 
 
 A STARTLING STATEMENT. 
 
 "The wicked shall not be unpunished." Prov- 
 erbs II : 21. 
 
 There are very many passages of scripture which 
 ought properly to be read in connection with this 
 text, as for example, "Fools make a mock of sin" 
 (Proverbs 14:9), for only a fool would. Better 
 trifle with the pestilence and expose oneself to the 
 plague than to discount the blighting effects of sin. 
 
 And again, "The soul that sinneth it shall die," 
 Ezekiel 18:4. From this clear statement of the 
 word of God there is no escape. Or again, "Our 
 secret sins in the light of His countenance." 
 Psalm 90 : 8. There is really nothing hidden from 
 His sight. We may conceal our sinful thoughts 
 and sometimes even our evil practices may be hidden 
 from men but not from God. Or again, "Sin when 
 it is finished bringeth forth death." James i : 14-15. 
 Here is progress of sin indicated, from which law 
 there has never been the slightest deviation. But 
 one of the sharpest texts in all the Word of God 
 and one which men somehow in these days seem 
 to ignore is Paul's expression, "Be not deceived, 
 God is not mocked, whatsoever a man soweth that 
 shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7. And if we 
 compare this reference in the New Testament to 
 the text in the Old Testament the harvest indeed 
 82 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 seems to be sure, "for the wicked shall not be un- 
 punished." 
 
 There is a note of truth in all of these statements 
 for both saint and sinner. In Jeremiah the 30th 
 chapter and the nth verse, "For I am with thee, 
 saith the Lord, to save thee; though I make a full 
 end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet 
 I will not make a full end of thee: but I will cor- 
 rect thee in measure, and will not leave thee 
 altogether unpunished." The old Prophet is 
 speaking to the people of Israel, and w^hile he 
 tells them that they are God's people yet nev- 
 ertheless they shall not altogether go unpunished, 
 for if they sow to the flesh they must of the 
 flesh reap corruption. In Deuteronomy, 5th chap- 
 ter and the 9th verse, we read, "Thou shalt not 
 bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them ; 
 for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto 
 the third and fourth generation of them that hate 
 me." It is a solemn fact that the sins of the fath- 
 ers descend upon the children until the third and 
 fourth generation ; it is more solemn that so blight- 
 ing is the effect of sin that the fourth generation is 
 the last. There is no fifth. Even though we be 
 pardoned for sin we shall not altogether go un- 
 punished. 
 
 Certainly it is true if one rejects Jesus Christ 
 that punishment for him is absolutely sure. 
 
 Not long ago in the city of Chicago the following 
 appeared in the Inter Ocean as an editorial under 
 the title of "The preaching that moves'" : 
 
 83 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 "To those who look upon men as they are it is 
 simply astounding that so many preachers should 
 act as if the hope of reward alone could be efficient 
 to move average mankind to leave sin and follow 
 after righteousness, 
 
 "In every other relation of human life every man 
 is constantly confronted with the alternative: Do 
 right and be content ; do wrong and be punished. 
 
 "The pressure of fear as well as the pressure of 
 hope is continually upon him. He knows that he 
 may conceal his wrongdoing from the eye of man,- 
 but he is always under the fear of discovery and 
 punishment. 
 
 "But he goes to church, and in nine cases out of 
 ten the preacher, while insisting that he can hide 
 nothing from the eye of God, yet says nothing to 
 arouse in him that fear of God which is the begin- 
 ning of wisdom. 
 
 "If he turn from religion to science he finds sci- 
 ence more positive of the certainty of punishment 
 than of the certainty of reward. Science cannot, 
 for example, assure him of a long life, even though 
 he scrupulously obey hygienic laws. But it can 
 assure him of a speedy death if he wantonly vio- 
 late those laws. 
 
 "Precisely because the consequences of sin in pun- 
 ishment can be foretold more positively than the 
 consequences of righteousness in reward is what 
 makes fear the strongest influence dominating and 
 directing human conduct. 
 
 "Yet many preachers deliberately abandon the 
 appeal to fear and then wonder why their preach- 
 
 84 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ing does not move men to active righteousness. 
 When more preachers recover from the delusion 
 into which so many of them have fallen such com- 
 plaints will diminish, 
 
 "For all human experience proves that the preach- 
 ing that appeals to fear of punishment as well as 
 to hope of reward is the preaching that is really 
 effective — is the preaching of all the great preach- 
 ers of the past and the present — is the preaching 
 that moves." 
 
 The statement of the text is exceedingly plain 
 and the teaching is unquestioned. It is a good 
 thing for us to-day to understand w'hat sin is, for 
 if we have a wrong conception of sin it naturally 
 follows that we shall have a wrong conception of 
 the atonement. Without an understanding of sin 
 there is no sense of guilt, and without the sense of 
 guilt there is no cry for pardon. 
 
 The best definitions of sin that I have ever found 
 are written in the word of God. 
 
 I. 
 
 I, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also 
 the law ; for sin is the transgression of the law." 
 I John 3 : 4. The word "transgression" means to 
 go across. Does your life parallel God's law or 
 cross it? Your answer to this question determines 
 the measure of your sin. You have only to read 
 the ten commandments and try to mould your life 
 by them to find your answer. Better still, you have 
 only to read these commandments in the light of 
 Jesus' interpretation where the look of lust is adul- 
 
 85 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 tery and anger without cause is murder, to see how 
 far short you have come and if this is true certainly 
 you are a sinner and the text is for you. "The 
 wicked shall not be unpunished." 
 
 2. "All unrighteousness is sin ; and there is a 
 sin not unto death." I John 5: 17. Righteousness 
 means right relations with God. You may make 
 ever so strong a claim to right living and speak 
 ever so vehemently concerning the good that you 
 are accomplishing in the world, but the first ques- 
 tion for you to settle is this, What is your relation to 
 God and what have you to say with reference to 
 your acceptance or rejection of Jesus Christ? It 
 is a solemn thought that whatever we do counts 
 for nothing if our relation to God be wrong, while 
 the little that we may do may count for much if 
 we have taken the right position before him. 
 
 3. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, 
 and doeth it not, to him it is sin." James 4: 17. 
 
 Omission according to this scripture is sin, neg- 
 lected opportunity is sin, shirking responsibility is 
 sin, refusing to obey God is sin, and so when I ask 
 you about being a Christian if it is best and right 
 and you acknowledge that it is, then if you are not 
 a Christian this very fact is in itself sin, for when 
 one knows the right and refuses to do it he is a 
 sinner and the text is true. "The wicked shall not 
 be unpunished." 
 
 4. "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, 
 because he eateth not of faith ; for whatsoever is 
 not of faith is sin." Romans 14:23. Acted doubt 
 is sin. If you have a doubt concerning the sinful- 
 
 86 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ness of certain things, then to do those things is 
 sin. If I have the least doubt concerning the 
 amusements which may be questionable or the posi- 
 tion which may be doubtful so long as a doubt or 
 a question remain these things are sin and the Bible 
 states the fact that "the wicked shall not be un- 
 punished." 
 
 5. "And when he is come, he will reprove the 
 world of sin, and of righteousness and of judg- 
 ment." Unbelief is the chiefest of sins. This is 
 to reject Jesus Christ, it is to close in our own face 
 the door of hope, it is to trample the blood of the 
 Son of God under our feet, and it meaiis also to 
 insult the spirit of grace. 
 
 One morning in the city of New York, about 
 two o'clock a man dashed down the street and, pass- 
 ing two men, rushed on to the pier. They could not 
 tell how old he was nor how he was dressed, but 
 they saw him strip off his overcoat, coat and hat, 
 and, before they could stir to save him, plunge off 
 the end of the pier. There was a short rope lying 
 near by, and seizing this a man ran with his compan- 
 ions to the point from which the man jumped. He 
 threw the rope toward the struggling figure that he 
 could just make out below him. The rope fell a 
 foot and a half too short. Then they ran back 
 to the gas plant and got a longer rope. The ice 
 was running so thick in the river that the 
 man's head and shoulders were still to be seen 
 above the water when they returned. Taking care- 
 ful aim he threw the rope squarely across the strug- 
 gling form, shouting, "Catch it and we'll pull you 
 
 87 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 in." The unknown, however, making a last effort, 
 threw the rope aside, and shouted back; "Oh, to 
 h — with it ! I'm through !" Then he sank out of 
 sight. That is a picture of the man who having 
 offered to him mercy and grace in Jesus Christ 
 spurns everything that God offers, and is therefore 
 hopeless. 
 
 Sin separates us from God. 
 
 Sin separates us from each other. 
 
 Sin pollutes us and we become impure. 
 
 Sin deceives us and we are in danger and know 
 it not. 
 
 A friend of mine walking along the streets of 
 Cincinnati early one morning saw a young girl 
 standing upon the very edge of the roof of one of 
 the highest office buildings. She was carefully bal- 
 ancing herself and every moment it seemed as if 
 she would fall. The elevator was not running. He 
 made his way hurriedly to the roof of the building, 
 walked carefully across it, seized her by the hand 
 and drew her back to find that she had risen in her 
 sleep and all unconsciously was standing on the 
 very brink of eternity. This is what sin does for 
 us, and it is a solemn thought that for all such 
 the text is true, "The wicked shall not be unpun- 
 ished." 
 
 II. 
 
 I do not make my appeal, however, on the ground 
 that the punishment is all for the future, for that 
 is indeed sure. I ask you the question, "Do you 
 believe in Heaven as a place of awards?" If so the 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 same argument will prove the existence of Hell. 
 "Do you reject Hell because it seems to you to be 
 inconceivable?" Then the same argument will blot 
 Heaven out of existence. What it is that awaits 
 the wicked I am sure I do not know, only that it 
 is to be away from God, with the door of hope 
 shut forever, and the Bible tells me tliat there is 
 weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, for 
 the wicked shall not be unpunished. I lift my 
 voice against the punishment here, for sin is so sure 
 in its deadly work, it is so insidious in its influ- 
 ence, before }ou know it it is upon you, just one 
 day of trifling and you are gone. 
 
 The people about Pittsburg will never forget 
 the Cheswick mine horror in 1903, when one hun- 
 dred and eighty-two dead men were taken from the 
 mine. Under the direction of one of the mining 
 engineers a rescuing party started into the mine 
 to see if there was any hope of saving the men who 
 might be yet alive. The journey is described by 
 one who volunteered to go with the engineer on 
 his perilous journey : "When we got to the foot 
 of the shaft Mr. Taylor lighted a cigar. He blew 
 out a great cloud of smoke and watched it drift 
 into a passage. 'This way,' he said, 'the smoke 
 will follow the pure air draught.' So we v/ent on, 
 Mr. Taylor blowing clouds of smoke, and we fol- 
 lowing them. Suddenly he wheeled and yelled ; 
 'The black damp is coming!' The cigar smoke 
 had stopped as though it had come to a stone wall, 
 and was now drifting over our heads. We ran with 
 death at our heels, ran with our tongues dry and 
 
 89 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 swelling and our eyes smarting like balls of fire. 
 It seemed only a minute until Mr. Taylor shrieked 
 and fell forward on his face. He crawled along 
 for awhile on his hands and knees, and then fell 
 again and lay still. I stopped for a second, with 
 the idea of carrying him. 
 
 "Then I realized how hopeless that was. We were 
 still a quarter of a mile from the foot of the pit. 
 He was a very heavy man, and I, as you see, am 
 small and weak. Again I ran choking and beating 
 my head with my hands. I fell, cut my face, called 
 upon God, struggled to my feet and fell again. 
 So I plunged on, falling and fighting forward. 
 Black madness came upon me. The horrible, sick- 
 ening after-damp was tearing my heart up through 
 my dry throat. My brain was bursting through 
 my temples. Then a stroke, as though by a sledge 
 hammer, and I knew nothing more. They found 
 me at ten minutes past one Tuesday morning. At 
 first they thought I was dead. Then they saw my 
 head rise and fall while I weakly pounded on a 
 rock with a stick that I had caught in my delirium." 
 This is to me a striking picture of what sin does 
 for us. There is no one so strong but he may be 
 overpowered by its awful influence. God save us 
 from it, for "the wicked shall not be unpunished." 
 
 HI. 
 
 Is there no hope? For it would seem from the 
 message thus far as if nothing but despair were 
 ahead of us. Two ways to escape from the power 
 90 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 of sin have been suggested ; one is man's way, the 
 other is God's. Let us consider them both. 
 
 I. Man suggests reformation, but how about the 
 sins of the past? They are still untouched. Man tells 
 the sinner to do his best, but how about the will 
 which has been weakened by sinful practices and 
 which seems unable to act ? Man tells the depraved 
 to change his surroundings, but how about the heart 
 that is unclean? The fact is man's way will not 
 reach us. 
 
 In January, 1904, the American Liner New York 
 left Southampton and came into the New York 
 harbor with a sad story to tell. A sailor was sus- 
 pended over the side of the vessel making repairs 
 when an enormous wave tore him away and he was 
 very soon under the forefoot of the ship. The 
 waves began to carry him away and a life line was 
 thrown to him with a buoy attached. The sailor, 
 sometimes visible and then obscured by the rising of 
 a swell, grasped the line and a cheer went up. He 
 took a half turn with the line around his waist, 
 was rolling himself over into the bight of the line 
 and it looked as if he would be saved. The sailors 
 on deck were just about to haul in. The poor 
 fellow's hands and fingers must have been numb 
 with the cold, for he suddently rolled out of the 
 half-formed knot, losing his grip upon the line. 
 None of the passengers could help the man, none 
 of the crew dared jump to his rescue, no boat could 
 live in such a maelstrom. The sailor who was 
 struggling and being whirled around and bobbing 
 like a cork, his oilskins partially spreading out and 
 
 91 
 
-FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 sustaining him, kept drifting further and further 
 away. 
 
 Aroused by the commotion, the second officer 
 came on deck just as the sailor lost his hold. Toss- 
 ing aside his cap, overcoat and jacket, he bade the 
 seaman take a bowline hitch around his body and 
 lower him away. The volunteer life-saver was 
 cheered by the passengers as he went over. It was 
 bitter cold, the sleet sharp and the swells ugly. A 
 strong swim in the trough of the seas and over 
 the crests and the officer might reach the seaman. 
 It was his only chance. 
 
 He had no more than touched the spume before 
 the waves hurled him against the side of the 
 steamer again and again, bruising his ankle and 
 knee, but he struck out bravely and gradually drew 
 nearer the sailor. For fifteen minutes the senior 
 second officer struggled. During one of his brave 
 spurts in the direction of the struggling man he 
 looked up to the rail. The practiced eye of the 
 seafaring man saw something that caused him sud- 
 denly to turn and breast his way back to the ship. 
 The line was too short. The seaman holding the 
 line attached to the officer had in his hands the mere 
 end of it, and there was not another bit to pay out. 
 It was a sixty fathom line, "all gone," and the 
 officer yet only half way to the drowning man. It 
 was too late to splice another. Had it been thought 
 of in time the man might have been saved. A 
 longer struggle was useless, and the officer allowed 
 himself to be hauled aboard, leaving the helpless 
 man to go to his last account. That is always the 
 
 92 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 difficulty with man's effort to save the lost. It 
 does not reach far enough and fails just at the 
 time when it ought to hold. 
 
 2. God's way. The blood of Jesus Christ His 
 Son cleanses us from all sin, that is God's message. 
 "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unright- 
 eous man his thought and let him return unto the 
 Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and unto 
 our God for He will abundantly pardon." This is 
 God's invitation. 
 
 "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy trans- 
 gressions for mine own sake, and will not remember 
 thy sins." This is God's pledge, and He has never 
 failed to keep it. 
 
 In the old days when England and Scotland were 
 at war the English came up against Bruce. They 
 drove him from his castle and as he fled away from 
 them they let loose his own bloodhounds and set 
 them upon his trail. His case seemed hopeless. He 
 can hear the bay of the hounds in the distance and 
 those who were with him had just about given up 
 in despair. But not so with Bruce. He comes to a 
 stream, flowing through the forest, he plunges in 
 wades three bow shots up the stream and then out 
 upon the other side. The hounds came up to the 
 stream, stopped and sniffed. They had lost the 
 track. They turned back defeated and Bruce in time 
 won the day. Is it not like this with our sins ? Like 
 a pack of hounds they are after us, wherever we 
 flee they are close upon us. "The wages of sin is 
 death," I am told, but I have found the way of es- 
 cape. Here flows a stream which runs red with 
 
 93 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 the blood of Jesus Christ and I plunge in and am 
 free. 
 
 *'Thcre is a fountain filled with blood, 
 Drawn from Imrnanuel's veins ; 
 And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
 Lose all their guilty stains." 
 
 94 
 
CHAPTER TENTH. 
 
 A MESSAGE TO MEN ON THE GRACE OF 
 GQD. 
 
 "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy trans- 
 gressions for mine own sake, and will not remember 
 thy sins." Isaiah 4^: 25. 
 
 A part of this chapter I owe to another. In look- 
 ing over an old volume of sermons preached by 
 H. Grattan Guinness, forty-five years ago, I came 
 across the message which he delivered with this 
 text as a basis. So deep was the impression 
 made upon me by my first reading of the sermon 
 that 1 have taken Mx. Guinness' outline and many 
 of his suggestions and call your attention to a great 
 message to men. 
 
 He said: "If one should enter a jewelry store 
 and ask to see a diamond or any other precious 
 stone the jeweler would first spread upon his show 
 case a black cloth and then place the diamonds 
 upon it, not only for protection, but also in order 
 that the black background might bring out dis- 
 tinctly the brilliancy and worth of the gems." So 
 God gives his best of all His promises with the 
 dark picture of sin clearly and thoughtfully por- 
 trayed. In verses 22nd to the 24th we read, "But 
 thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou 
 hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not 
 brought me the small cattle of my burnt offerings; 
 
 95 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. 
 I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, 
 nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast broujii^ht 
 me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou 
 filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices; but thou 
 hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast 
 wearied me with thine iniquities." 
 
 And in these verses God says that His people 
 have not called upon Him in prayer, they have not 
 presented their offerings, neither have they pre- 
 sented unto Him themselves. He also afiirms that 
 they have wearied of Him and that they have also 
 wearied Him with their iniquities, and then He 
 exclaims, "I have not served you with offerings, 
 neither have I wearied you with incense'' ; and with 
 these clear statements He gives us the gracious 
 statement of the text, "I, even I, am he that blot- 
 teth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and 
 will not remember thy sins." 
 
 Notice the division of the text. 
 
 First: They are blotted out from God's Book. 
 
 Second: They are blotted out with God's hand. 
 
 Third: They are blotted out for His sake. 
 
 Fourth: They are blotted from His memory. 
 
 A more admirable outline of a text of scripture 
 I do not know, a more cheering message for a child 
 of God I have never found. 
 
 I. 
 
 Not long ago in Chicago a young man was in- 
 duced to confess to one whom he thought was his 
 friend the killing of his father and mother. As 
 96 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 the confession was being made, as he supposed to 
 but one person, it was all being taken down by those 
 who were near enough to hear him speak, and when 
 he appeared before the court his own confession 
 was used against him and sent him to a life im- 
 prisonment in the penitentiary. What was true of 
 this young man is true of us. Every sermon the 
 minister preaches is recorded, every word an indi- 
 vidual speaks is put down. It is a solemn thought 
 to realize that we shall give account at the judgment 
 even for our idle words. 
 
 Science has proven that our acts, our words and 
 even our thoughts make their indelible record. 
 
 Not long ago in our home we came across a long 
 unused phonograph. We started it going, placing 
 upon it one of the cylinders which had been packed 
 away with the phonograph, and were startled to 
 hear the voice of one who had been dead for years. 
 We heard the message he dictated, the song in 
 which he joined and the laugh with which he closed 
 it, and yet his voice has long been silent in death. 
 There is not a sin of your youth which has not 
 made its record, not a passion of your mature years 
 that does not stand somewhere against you. Not 
 an act, a feeling or an imagination that has not 
 been indelibly written, not all the changes of time, 
 not all the efforts of man can wipe these things out. 
 
 In the British Museum there is a piece of stone, 
 not larger than the average Bible, at least four 
 thousand years old, and in the center of the stone 
 there is a mark of a bird's foot ; four thousand years 
 ae:o the track was made and for four thousand 
 
 97 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 years the record has stood. If these things are true 
 of us and they are according to the Word of God, 
 then what prospect is there for us but that of eter- 
 nal punishment, for when we stand at the judg- 
 ment there shall appear before us the sins of omis- 
 sion and the sins of commission, the sins we had 
 forgotten and the sins we have but recently com- 
 mitted against ourselves, against our fellow men 
 and against God. It is indeed a black picture, and 
 with whitened faces and rapidly beating hearts we 
 ask, is there any hope? I bring you God's gracious 
 answer to this important question, "I, even I, am 
 He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine 
 own sake, and will not remember thy sins." No- 
 tice it is the voice of God speaking. "I, even I," 
 he exclaims, "will blot out your transgressions." 
 It is first of all a commercial term. We were in 
 debt with God, hopelessly in debt and our obliga- 
 tion was cancelled ; over against my sin is placed 
 the righteousness of the Son of God, and I am free. 
 
 "Jesus paid it all, 
 All to Him I owe, 
 Sin had left a crimson stain, 
 He washed it white as snow." 
 
 It is second a chemical expression, for it is a 
 picture of God applying the blood of Jesus Christ 
 to every page of the record written. The sins of 
 our youth long ago passed out of mind, the sins of 
 our manhood which have taken up every part of 
 our being, the sins of to-day all have gone, for He 
 Himself has blotted them out. When wc realize 
 that we are forgiven of God it means more than 
 
 98 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 if we were forgiven of men, for in the might of 
 His forgiveness our past sins are gone, they shall 
 not even be mentioned against us, the fear of judg- 
 ment is taken away, for Jesus Himself says, "Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, 
 and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlast- 
 ing life, and shall not come into judgment, but is 
 passed from death unto life." John 5 : 24. It is 
 the Passover story over again, "When I see the 
 blood I will pass over you." Thus are our sins 
 blotted out. 
 
 11. 
 
 It is with God's hand that the work is done, and 
 for very many reasons this is a great comfort to 
 us. 
 
 First. Because it was God's hand that made the 
 record, He it was who put down all your sins. He 
 never rested in His work; week after week, month 
 after month, year after year, the recording work 
 was being done until your record became blacker 
 than the blackest midnight, and behold the hand 
 that made the record blots it out. 
 
 Second. It was His hand against which you 
 offended. Your sin was against yourself. It is 
 true it hurt your character, lowered your self res- 
 pect, but more especially was it against God, for 
 you despised His authority, forsook His service, 
 broke His laws, defied His justice, you grieved His 
 spirit and you crucified His Son; and behold it is 
 the hand against which you committed all these 
 offenses which blotted out your transgressions. 
 
 99 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Third. It is the offended hand which blots 
 them out. It was the hand that opened the foun- 
 tains of the deep, and behold the floods came, the 
 waters above and the waters below clasped their 
 hands and destruction was everywhere save in the 
 Ark. It was His hand that brought destruction 
 upon the cities and the plain, consuming them with 
 a mighty flame, and it was His hand that opened 
 the sea for the children of Israel and then closed 
 the sea over the pursuing Egyptians. The very 
 thought of the offended hand makes us tremble, but 
 behold it is this hand that blots out all our trans- 
 gressions. 
 
 Fourth. It is the hand of justice that does the 
 work. The same hand wrote, "Your sin shall not 
 be unpunished," and wrote again, "The soul that 
 sinneth it shall die," and wrote again, "The wages 
 of sin is death." This hand is stretched forth in 
 our behalf. I doubt not the question has often 
 come to us, "How can God be just and the justi- 
 fier of them that believe?" In the light of such 
 statements as these just quoted I am sure it is for 
 this reason. It is for the offering of the just for the 
 unjust. He made Him to be sin for us who knew 
 no sin that we might be made the righteousness of 
 God in Him. A man was needed for such an offer- 
 ing and Christ became man. The man required 
 must be born under the law, so Christ came in the 
 likeness of sinful flesh. The man born under the 
 law must be without sin, so He was born pure. The 
 man born under the law and without sin must be 
 willing to die and so He came saying, "I delight to 
 loo 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 do thy will, O God." And the man born under 
 the law, without sin and wilHng to die must be 
 able to provide an atonement which would make the 
 wandering sinner and the loving God one, and so 
 Christ was offered to God and thus furnished a 
 joint sacrifice of sufficient power and magnitude 
 to save the whole world. It is this hand of God that 
 blots out our transgressions. 
 
 Fifth. It is the hand of the Supreme Being that 
 does the work. What a word of encouragement 
 this is ! It was this hand that made the worlds and 
 hurled them off into space. It was this hand that 
 created man and made him in the likeness of the 
 image of God. It was this hand that formed the 
 countless number of angels and has ever directed 
 their Heavenly movements. It was this hand that 
 wrote the word upon Sinai. And it was this hand 
 that holds the kingdoms of Heaven and Hell, He 
 blots out our transgressions. From His position 
 there can be no appeal ; with such a work as this 
 who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? 
 Would God that justifieth do it, or Christ that died 
 consent to it? In the light of such a thought the 
 Apostle Paul says, "For I am persuaded that neither 
 death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
 nor height, nor death, nor any other creature, shall 
 be able to separate us from the love of God, which 
 is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8 : 38-39. 
 
 lOI 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 III. 
 
 Our sins are blotted out for His sake. God saves 
 the sinner not alone because of pity for the sinner, 
 and certainly not alone because he is in danger of 
 Hell, but in order that He may glorify Himself; 
 and this is no selfish glorification but rather in order 
 that He may show to us now and throughout all the 
 ages what He really is. God has made different 
 revelations of Himself. We have beheld His wis- 
 dom in creation, in His providences and in His 
 word. We have seen His justice in that He gave 
 His only begotten Son to die for poor lost men ; 
 we have seen His power in the working of miracles 
 and the transforming effect of His grace. It remains 
 for us to see His love in the story of salvation, for 
 until you behold Him as a Savior of the sinner 
 you do not know Him. It is this that shall make 
 us not only rejoice here in time but rejoice with joy 
 unspeakable in eternity. The Apostle Paul whites 
 in Ephesians 2 7-8, "That in the ages to come he 
 might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in 
 his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For 
 by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not 
 of yourselves, it is the gift of God." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Our sins are blotted out from God's memory. 
 The last of this wonderful text is to me the best. 
 When we detect a failure of memory here in this 
 world among our friends it is an evidence of weak- 
 
 102 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ness, but it is no weakness in God to forget. I was 
 listening not long ago to a distinguished lecturer, 
 one of America's old heroes, when suddenly he 
 paused, became greatly confused and turned help- 
 lessly to his audience. The name of one of his great 
 characters had passed from his memory and he could 
 not recall it. I heard a gentleman sitting near me 
 say, "This is the beginning of the end with the old 
 general" ; and it was so, for in a few months he was 
 dead. This is but another one of those expressions 
 descriptive of God in which human language is 
 used to describe a great thought and in which human 
 language is too poor an agency to convey all the 
 depth of the meaning. It is just another picture 
 of God stooping down to meet our weakness and it 
 is God assuring us that our sins are gone completely. 
 It is as if they never had existed, for they shall 
 never stand against us, and in the day of judgment 
 they shall not even be mentioned. Our sins must 
 have been a grief to Him just as the sin of a child 
 here is the cause of sorrow to an earthly parent, but 
 they are so no longer for He has forgotten. The 
 Bible represents God as being angry because of our 
 transgressions but if ever there was anger with Him 
 it is so no longer, for you cannot be angry with a 
 person whose injury against you you have entirely 
 forgotten. We do not in this world speak of what 
 we have forgotten, nor will God speak of our sins. 
 We do not punish what we have forgotten, nor will 
 God permit us to be punished, for He has blotted 
 out our transgressions and will remember them no 
 more. There is no awaiting penalty for your sin, 
 103 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 there is no judgment to meet at the great white 
 throne, there is no Hell for you at the last, for your 
 sins for Christ's sake have been forgotten. 
 
 If you cast a stone into the water and it sinks 
 away there is for a time a ripple where the stone 
 has gone down, but in a moment it has gone for- 
 ever, you can see it no more. So God has cast our 
 sins into the sea and the place where they have 
 gone cannot even be found. 
 
 V. 
 
 But what must I do to take advantage of all this 
 gracious offer of God? 1 answer according to the 
 scripture, there must be true repentance. Repent- 
 ance is a change of mind, it is having a new mind 
 for God. There must be regeneration ; regeneration 
 is a change of nature, it is a new heart for God. 
 There must be conversion ; conversion is a change 
 of living and a new life for God. If we would be 
 born from above we must accept God's word. 
 
 Two friends were conversing one evening. One of 
 them with a skeptical mind had rejected the Bible, 
 because it did not tell him the things that he would 
 know. He insisted on knowing how the worlds 
 were made, and demanded that he should be told 
 concerning the origin of Heaven and why God per- 
 mitted it, and because the Bible failed here he would 
 have none of it. Just as his friend was leaving the 
 skeptic said to him, "Here is my lantern. I want 
 you to lake it and it will light you home." But the 
 lantern was refused by the Christian man, for, said 
 
 104 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 he, "This lantern will not light up the mountains in 
 the distance, nor the valley stretching away at my 
 feet." His friend was amazed. "Man," said he, 
 "take the lantern ; it will make a road for you across 
 the moor step by step and light your pathway home." 
 "Oh," said the man, "if that is true I will take it." 
 "But listen to me," said his friend. "So is the Bible, 
 not so much for distant paths of investigation, it is 
 not so much to tell us concerning creation and exist- 
 ence, although it docs shed light there, however we 
 shall know these things by and by perfectly. It is for 
 the path at your feet and it will light you home a 
 step at a time." The skeptical man saw it in an 
 instant, he took God's word and came back again to 
 the faith of his childhood. 
 
 So I offer it to you, with its promises as a sure 
 foundation ; with its commands carefully received 
 and followed out you too may pass from darkness 
 to light and you may claim from God this text of 
 mine which says, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out 
 thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not 
 remember thy sins." / 
 
 105 
 
CHAPTER ELEVENTH. 
 
 A CHURCH FOR MEN. 
 
 To one acquainted with the Rev. S. B. Alderson, 
 D. D., of Portsmouth, Ohio, and his work, it would 
 ahnost seem as if the absence 
 of men from the services of the 
 church were largely the fault of 
 the minister himself. For sev- 
 eral years Dr. Alderson has 
 been conducting, in connection 
 with his church, a successful 
 Sunday afternoon service for 
 men. The attendance began 
 with eight present. It is now a 
 very ordinary thing to see five 
 or six hundred men in the au- 
 dience every Sunday afternoon. 
 At my suggestion Dr. Aider- 
 son writes concerning his work as follows : 
 
 A few years ago in a meeting for men, conducted 
 by J. Wilbur Chapman, I received a precious bless- 
 ing upon my own soul and there made up my mind 
 that throughout the remainder of my ministry, be it 
 long or short, I would devote more effort than in the 
 past to that large indifferent and neglected popula- 
 tion who had so much in this world to contend 
 against — who realize so little their eternal danger — 
 whom I had always found a hopeful element to work 
 io6 
 
 REV. S. B. ALDERSON. 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 with when properly approached, — that I would by 
 God's grace and assistance try to save the men. My 
 church at that time did not differ from the ordinary 
 run of churches, having a small nucleus of devoted 
 members and a majority attendance of females upon 
 its regular religious services. The problem now 
 was "how to reach the men with the Gospel," for 
 I had no advantages either in myself or in my con- 
 gregation, except that of an humble, faithful pastor 
 and preacher. The work was before me. How to 
 inaugurate it and at the same time enlist the en- 
 thusiasm and co-operation of my own male church 
 members, was the question to be decided. The wo- 
 men had their literary and musical clubs which 
 brought them together frequently — which they 
 greatly enjoyed, which they enthusiastically at- 
 tended — but there was nothing of the kind which 
 brought the men together in assemblies outside of 
 their narrow denominational church services. The 
 men met one another in their daily business rela- 
 tions but in higher social and spiritual relations 
 they really were not acquainted. Nothing ever 
 threw them together in this capacity. Church and 
 social circles had formed cliques and rings which 
 brought the same individuals into frequent contact 
 with one another, but there was no wider tie of mu- 
 tual interest which brought them together as a body^ 
 massed for the purpose of studying their moral and 
 religious interest. Assuming that they would appre- 
 ciate this higher movement in their behalf, I an- 
 nounced a meeting in the lecture room of my church 
 to be held on Friday evenings, throughout the win- 
 107 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ter months. I then selected two or three live topics 
 of local interest about which men were thinking and 
 started off to find a few well known and thoughtful 
 men in the community who would consent to open 
 the discussion upon these several topics. On the 
 first evening it rained and only eight men were pres- 
 ent. In a few weeks, however, the interest extended 
 to a wider circle of men and we soon had an average 
 attendance at the meeting of over two hundred men. 
 These meetings were never organized. They had 
 no name, no officers, no expenses, no constitution 
 nor by-laws ; only a committee of three selected to 
 provide topics and assign them to qualified speakers. 
 The subject of religion was never once introduced, 
 neither by song, nor by prayer. The object was to 
 bring men together as nearly as possible upon an 
 equal degree of freedom and that no man should 
 have his convictions or prejudices wounded, no mat- 
 ter what might be his denominational or political 
 opinions. The discussions were opened to all alike. 
 Even the pastor did not assume any privileges or 
 ofiiciousness above the others. He was the most 
 quiet and modest man in the company. He went 
 there not to tell others what he knew, but to gather 
 from the experience and thought of the others all 
 that they had learned, and he hereby acknowledges 
 that he gained much practical information of men 
 and their ways, which has since been of estimable 
 value. The pastor's supreme effort was to bring 
 these men together socially, to help them to know 
 each other, to draw them toward himself, to win 
 their esteem and affection, so that he might be use- 
 io8 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 fill to ihcm in the future. It required a good deal 
 of tact not to offend their prejudices nor to antag- 
 onize their opinions and to hide from view his own 
 ultimate motive, but it won in the end. 
 
 Perhaps an intimation of the nature of the topics 
 selected and discussed at these meetings would be 
 interestmg. The aim was to make everything in- 
 tensely helpful and instructive to young men, who 
 because of their daily employment did not have time 
 either to read or attend school. The point was to 
 get the older and experienced and successful to tell 
 for the benefit of others what they had learned. 
 Some of the topics as I remember them were these : 
 "An Easy and Practical Lesson in Arithmetic," by 
 the principal of the Business College. "Banking, 
 The Deposit, Circulation and Protection of Money," 
 by a banker. "Wages, How to Invest Small Sav- 
 ings," by a manufacturer. "Building and Loan As- 
 sociations, How They are Managed, and What Ad- 
 vantages They Offer to Small Investors," by the 
 president of one of these associations. "How to 
 Make Farming Pay," by a farmer. "The Personal 
 Care of the Human Body," by a physician, "The 
 Sanitary Care of the Home," by a physician. "Legal 
 P^orms for Drawing up Notes, Bills, Contracts and 
 JMortgages," illustrated on the blackboard by an at- 
 torney. To my personal knowledge many men de- 
 rived valuable financial, commercial and physical 
 benefit from the discussion of these and kindred 
 themes. 
 
 These meetings continued through two winters, 
 with unabated interest. No one derived more good 
 
 109 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 from them than did the writer. He learned to know 
 men — their habits of thought — their pecuHar in- 
 clinations — what interested them — what would at- 
 tract them — what good thing remained in them un- 
 derneath all their roughness — how to love them and 
 talk to them — how to win their confidence and ad- 
 miration — and how to point them to that Savior, 
 Whom he now knows, the heart of the libertine, ♦^he 
 drunkard, the saloon keeper, and the gambler longs 
 to find and rest upon in peace. 
 
 Before the second winter closed an additional 
 "Men's Meeting" was appointed for Sabbath after- 
 noons, to be of a Gospel character and led by one 
 of their own number — some man of approved 
 Christian standing. An invitation was extended to 
 all male persons over sixteen years of age, and at 
 the same time a promise was given that these meet- 
 ings would be undenominational — that they would 
 not be in the interest of the congregation whose 
 church building was occupied, but that the sole pur- 
 pose would be to quicken the religious life in men — 
 to bring them to see their need of Christ as the 
 Savior of sinners — as the safe and only reliable 
 shelter against their manifold temptations; and then, 
 after they were converted, to send them to unite with 
 the church of their choice, whether Protestant or 
 Catholic. Men will act with more freedom in the 
 presence of men, than in a mixed audience, hence 
 the rule barring out boys was kindly enforced. The 
 promise, never to ask any man converted in these 
 meetings to unite with the writer's church nor to 
 use these meetings in any way to the writer's per- 
 iio 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 sonal advantage, has been strictly adhered to both 
 by myself and my co-workers, until the whole com- 
 munity has learned to confide in our integrity — to 
 admire our unselfishness — to believe that we are hon- 
 est and have the glory of God and the welfare of 
 men truly at heart. It took the people some time to 
 find this out, but the number of men who have gone 
 into the other churches, when some of them pre- 
 ferred my church, has disarmed prejudice and sus- 
 picion completely. Whenever these men have talked 
 with me I have insisted that they accept Christ first 
 of all and after that I have advised them to anchor 
 in the church where their families or where their 
 peculiar inclinations and ties might lead them. Di- 
 visions in the home have been carefully guarded 
 against. And let me say — this broad, honest Chris- 
 tian method, closely followed, has commended itself 
 to sensible men every where, both in the church and 
 outside of the church, and has proven one of the 
 most powerful factors in this work. This method 
 has allayed the fear of pastors and invited the co- 
 operation of all good people. The motive is high, 
 unobjectionable and cannot be disputed. Sectar- 
 ianism, denominationalism, ecclesiastical rivalry 
 men dislike and hold themselves aloof from, until 
 they become converted ; after that they become wiser 
 and more charitable toward what seems to be the 
 necessary condition of the church upon earth. 
 
 Now as to the meetings. How to arrange and 
 
 conduct them. A successful meeting of any kind 
 
 must be planned and provided for in advance. The 
 
 first thing necessary is a cordial greeting to every 
 
 III 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 man who attends. Let him meet this atmosphere of 
 welcome on the threshold as he enters the building. 
 Show him that the meeting has a smile and an ex- 
 tended hand for him. Have a committee of genial 
 and popular men at the door to receive the first per- 
 son who enters. As for myself I never fail, as the 
 pastor of the church, to shake hands and speak a 
 kind word to every man before he leaves the room. 
 
 Then be careful not to make any distinctions be- 
 tween men — not to show any preference or partiality 
 in the manner of your greeting. Let every one — 
 the well dressed or the poorly clad — the man of 
 wealth or the man of poverty — the man who stands 
 high or the man who is rated low — every one receive 
 the glad hand. Ponder and act upon the words of 
 the Apostle James : 
 
 "For if there come unto your assembly a man with 
 a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in 
 also a poor man in vile raiment ; 
 
 "And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay 
 clothing, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good 
 place ; and say to the poor, stand thou there, or sit 
 here under my footstool ; 
 
 "Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are 
 become judges of evil thoughts? 
 
 "Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God 
 chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and 
 heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to 
 them that love Him ? 
 
 "But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men 
 oppress you, and draw you before the judgment 
 seats ? 
 
 112 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 "Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the 
 which ye are called ? 
 
 "If ye fulfill the royal law, according to the scrip- 
 ture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do 
 well; 
 
 "But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, 
 and are convinced of the law of transgressors." 
 
 Study this last verse carefully. Many of us have 
 sinned in this respect. Our transgressions have 
 turned the face of God away from our effort. So 
 many ministers and church workers select from the 
 community the men whom they want saved, because 
 these men are their relatives and a selfish desire will 
 be gratified — because these men will give standing 
 to the church of which they are members — because 
 their change of life will increase the pastor's re- 
 nown — because their offerings will strengthen the 
 church's financial situation and make the salaries 
 secure. Are these proper motives for any Gospel 
 worker? How they weaken the attack upon a sin- 
 ner's security when no higher motive than this pre- 
 vails in the mind. Successful work must be unsel- 
 fish and altogether for God's glory. My experience 
 is that if a minister values men by the worth of their 
 souls — and sees in every man whom he meets, irre- 
 spective of clothes, habits or standing, the same 
 value — and his supreme aim is "to save a soul from 
 death," God will look upon his ministry with favor 
 and he will have his reward — from Heaven. This 
 may not be a popular idea to enforce in some 
 churches, but it is scriptural and right. In all of 
 the writer's ministry, and especially in revival serv- 
 
 H 113 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ices, he has endeavored to impress his church people 
 with this idea and has insisted that they should not 
 pick out the men of their own choosing for the hon- 
 ors of salvation, but take them in the order in which 
 providence sends them, talk to them just as you 
 happen to meet them, for God is directing in this 
 matter as in all things and it is our duty to seize 
 His opportunities, not waiting for those of our own 
 making. There was never an outpouring of any 
 great power in any of the churches served by my- 
 self, except first the people became as willing to 
 save a drunkard as a moral man — as happy to save 
 a gambler as an honest man — as anxious to save a 
 saloon keeper as the most respectable man in the 
 community. 
 
 God taught me this lesson years ago in a most 
 striking way. I was pastor of a church at Washing- 
 ton Court House, Ohio. For five weeks I preached 
 to a faithful few in the lecture room. The situa- 
 tion seemed to be getting more desperate rather than 
 more encouraging. My heart was breaking under 
 what seemed to be an approaching failure. We 
 needed more of the substantial, influential, well to 
 do people of the town to counteract certain influ- 
 ences which were at work and to give the church a 
 higher standing. We had our eyes on the families 
 whom we would like to reach. But we were not 
 reaching them. They stood ofif as usual mocking 
 at our calamity. One morning a number of men 
 covenanted that they would go out that day and 
 talk religion to any and every man whom they met — 
 that they would invite these individuals to the revival 
 
 114 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 services, no matter how hard and wretched and 
 wicked they had become. Many that day were 
 startled by the first reHgions conversation of their 
 Hves. This was kept up for several days and it is 
 needless to say the wedding was furnished with 
 guests. Soon the town was on fire with interest. 
 The main audience room of the church became 
 crowded, the folding doors were opened to accom- 
 modate the increasing numbers and still many were 
 turned away. Many notable conversions occurred. 
 We reached the persons whom we at first wanted by 
 beginning with the lowest strata of the population 
 and working upward. In the following four weeks 
 140 persons were received. The meetings closed on 
 a high tide because the pastor had become physically 
 exhausted. The character of the work was quiet, 
 deep, permanent. The memory of it remains like 
 a sweet fragrance with those people still. Thus 
 God taught us not "to have men's persons in ad- 
 miration" and I have ever tried since then to keep 
 that lesson in mind. 
 
 Next have a singing book for every man. In 
 this day of inexpensive song books, there is no ex- 
 cuse for a church not putting a book into the hand 
 of every man in the meeting. Have a male organist 
 and a male leader of the singing. This is not the 
 place for a choir nor for fine singing. Men hear 
 enough of that in the usual church service. Have 
 the men do their own singing. Let them read the 
 words of the hymns and hear their own voices. 
 Nothing in the world is finer or more inspiring than 
 the voices of hundreds of men singing praises unto 
 
 115 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 God. Give the singing a large place in the meeting. 
 The pastor should not lead the meeting himself, 
 unless special existing conditions make it expedient 
 that once in a while he should preside. Of that he 
 must be the judge. His opportunities to speak are 
 numerous ; let the men have the floor if you are go- 
 ing to have a men's meeting. The great point is to 
 get others to work, to bring them prominently for- 
 ward so that they will become committed to the 
 movement. Do not lose sight of this aim. Show 
 your tact in getting others to take hold. Your 
 leader may be timid but assure him that you will 
 stand right by him and that he cannot fail. Sit near 
 him, so that he will feel the strength of your pr«s- 
 ence and if you see signs of his becoming embar- 
 rassed, be ready in an instant to come to his rescue 
 before he realizes that he is breaking down. Do 
 not allow any long silences or pauses to occur. 
 Speak to a dozen men in advance and get them to 
 promise that they will get on their feet, either to 
 pray or to give testimony whenever they notice that 
 a break occurs. It is a great thing to train your 
 church members to take a voluntary part in your 
 mid-week prayer meeting services. As a rule the 
 writer never calls upon any one either to speak or 
 to pray in his Wednesday evening service. We 
 doubtless kill many prayer meetings by so doing. 
 We call upon those who can speak to edification 
 as a rule to take part and often when they respond, 
 they do so simply because tb.cy are ashamed to de- 
 cline, when perhaps the spirit of devotion is abso- 
 lutely foreign to their hearts at the time. In that 
 
 ii6 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 case the whole performance is a mockery. Throw 
 the meeting open — give God's people liberty. Let 
 the Spirit select the individuals whom He would use 
 and speak through — and if you find the spirit is not 
 there to respond voluntarily, close your prayer meet- 
 ing earlier, then go home after a good but short 
 service rather than have a long but very formal one. 
 What you want is prayer, much of it and from many 
 lips. It will require training to develop your people 
 in this direction but when they are developed, then 
 you can use them everywhere. 
 
 In the meetings for men keep things going. With 
 a wise pastor on one hand and a good leader of the 
 singing on the other, together with a ready organ- 
 ist, the meeting should move right along. I have 
 yet to see the first man, however timid, fail and 
 break down as a leader, but I have seen God use the 
 feeble efforts of these men wonderfully in impress- 
 ing others. They may not be able to occupy more 
 than eight or ten minutes in remarks but that is all 
 right. What they do say comes from the heart and 
 their trembling tones give great weight to their 
 messages. Another point gained in having as many 
 dift'erent men lead as possible is this, then the meet- 
 ing is advertised each week under the name of 
 a new leader and this gives variety — besides 
 each leader has his special friends who will 
 come out of curiosity to see and to hear him. 
 Usually the leader will become so deeply in- 
 terested in his own meeting and so anxious to 
 have it surpass the others in attendance, that he will 
 spend a great deal of time personally inviting men 
 117 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 and will print cards containing- his name and topic 
 and will strew these through the shops and factories. 
 The matter is on his mind all the while. You have 
 no idea how anxious men are to hear what the Chris- 
 tian man who lives next door, who works in the same 
 shop, who endures the same trials and temptations 
 — how anxious they are to hear these men tell about 
 the power of religion to make them strong and 
 happy. They do not discuss these subjects as pri- 
 vate individuals. Everything- else is talked about 
 but not this. These meetings are a revelation. 
 
 Be sure that your leader is a person of reputable 
 Christian character — that he has been a member of 
 the church long enough to convince others of his 
 sincerity. Take him right into your pulpit with you 
 and let him see that your desk is not simply a place 
 reserved for an ordained man but is the place for 
 any man whose object is to save souls. Let him see 
 that your pulpit is not a place for proclaiming alto- 
 gether abstruse theological doctrines nor for getting- 
 off fine essays, but that it is consecrated to God for 
 saving men; and if his heart is yearning for his 
 fellow men, he can stand in it without the least 
 embarrassment. In so doing you bring yourself 
 as a minister down to the level of your fellows — 
 they begin to look upon you as their equal and their 
 friend — they will love and admire you, and your 
 opportunity over them will become wonderfully 
 increased. 
 
 Often men are heard to remark that they can 
 hardly wait from one Sabbath to the next, so anx- 
 ious are they for these meetings to come. And the 
 ii8 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 evidence of this soul longing is seen in the fact of 
 their coming by hundreds from all directions and 
 gathering at the doors of the church often fifteen 
 minutes before the doors are open or before the 
 ringing of the first bell, which is three quarters of 
 an hour before the time announced for the meet- 
 ing to begin. Some of the notable effects of these 
 meetings may be summarized as follows : 
 
 First, on my own church, which has a large num- 
 ber of male members on its roll and in its Sunday 
 congregations — and then upon our Sabbath school, 
 where the attendance of males never fails to outnum- 
 ber the attendance of the females. This is unusual 
 and exceptional. There are from 75 to 100 men in 
 our Sabbath school every Sabbath morning. 
 
 Secondly, in the number of men who have re- 
 ceived their first impressions in these meetings and 
 made their first start, either by rising or by coming 
 forward for prayer. I say it with due deliberation 
 and with many evidences to confirm the statement, 
 that it is my sincere belief that on an average there 
 has been a man converted and turned to God in 
 every men's meeting which we have held. The 
 presence of the Spirit is very marked. Let those 
 take courage from this to begin the work ?nd see 
 what God will do for them. 
 
 Thirdly, in the unusual number of reformed men 
 in this city, now observed and often spoken of by 
 those who have resided here for a long time and who 
 knew how these men lived in their former days. 
 Now their faces are bright — their bodies have the 
 glow of health since the liquor has gotten out of 
 
 119 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 them — their language is chaste and clean — their 
 habits are good — their clothes have improved in 
 quality — their families are happy — their places in 
 the sanctuary are filled — many of them will lead in 
 public prayer — their influence for good is unbounded 
 and where they have been without employment we 
 have made strenuous efifort to find something for 
 them to do. 
 
 Fourthly, other churches in the city seeing the ad- 
 vantage of these meetings and deriving great bene- 
 fit from them in the way of male additions to their 
 membership, have followed the example of the Sec- 
 ond Presbyterian Church, and often our largest at- 
 tendance has been on the very Sabbath afternoons 
 when there were three or four other men's meetings 
 announced for the same hour. 
 
 The deepest and most genuine revivals in my 
 whole experience have uniformly commenced with 
 the men. Has not God promised that it should be 
 so? 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord God ; I will yet for this be 
 inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them ; 
 I will increase them with men like a flock. As the 
 holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn 
 feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks 
 of men ; and they shall know that I am the Lord." 
 
 Recently in the men's meeting, conducted in this 
 church in the presence of hundreds of men, the fol- 
 lowing thrilling incident occurred which brought 
 tears to every eye and left its impression upon every 
 memory. 
 
 Two men entered the room together. One was 
 
 I20 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 somewhat in the fifties, the gray predominated in the 
 color of his hair — his mouth was covered witli a 
 heavy gray mustache. The other was a youth of 
 about 22 — with a smooth, bright, intellectual face. 
 They were strangers to most of the men. They oc- 
 cupied adjoining chairs. When the meeting was 
 about half through the older man of the two arose 
 with his arms folded across his breast and evident 
 emotion in the tones of his voice and said : "I heard 
 that a man who for many years had been a great 
 drunkard was going to lead this meeting. That is 
 my trouble. If God can save him, will he not save 
 me? Men, pray for me" — and with that he took 
 his seat overcome by his feelings. The young man 
 at his side bowed his head in a lengthy silence, occa- 
 sionally wiping away his tears with his thumb. 
 After he had gotten somewhat composed, he arose 
 and said: "This man by my side who just asked 
 for your prayers is my father. I do not know what 
 brought him to this meeting. He has been for many 
 years a hater of churches and Christian people. He 
 has been such a wicked man and such an unkind 
 husband and father. For many years I have been 
 ashamed to bear his name — ashamed for people to 
 know that I was his child. I am myself a Christian 
 — a student in the seminary, studying theology, and 
 hope some day to preach the Gospel. I had given up 
 my father, believing him to be beyond redemption. 
 I doubted whether God could save him. This is the 
 happiest moment of my life. I shall never cease to 
 thank God that I came to this meeting. I shall go 
 back to my school with the happiest heart that ever 
 
 121 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 beat in the bosom of a man. Ob, men, help me and 
 do not forget him nor let him go. I must leave him 
 with you. Let us pray." Then dropping upon his 
 knees, oh, what a prayer that boy uttered for his 
 father. I weep as I write about it. That man is 
 now a Christian and a church member. His wife 
 told me this morning, "I never hear the bell for your 
 men's meeting that I do not thank God for what 
 your church is doing for the men of this city." His 
 little daughter, six years old, sitting upon the floor, 
 sewing doll rags, overhearing our conversation, 
 looked up into her mother's face and said: "I re- 
 member when papa got his gun and drove us away 
 from home." 
 
 122 
 
CHAPTER TWELFTH. 
 
 DR. MUNHALL'S MESSAGE. 
 
 The following sermon is by L. W. Munhall, 
 M. A., D. D. (Evangelist), Philadelphia. It is much 
 abridged and the illustrations, 
 which are quite numerous, are 
 all omitted. It has always been 
 delivered to audiences com- 
 posed wholly of men — mostly 
 young men. It was first de- 
 livered in 1872. It has been de- 
 livered 269 times, never twice 
 exactly alike, but always fol- 
 lowing the same outlines and 
 treatment. His audiences ranged 
 from 150 to 8,600, with an 
 average of nearly 1,800. The 
 sermon has never been given without conversions 
 being immediately secured, ranging from 7 to 529, 
 and averaging considerably more than 100 per 
 service, or an aggregate of about 30,000 souls. The 
 time taken in its delivery has never been less than 
 an hour. 
 
 DR. L. W. MUNHALL. 
 
 "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ; and let thy 
 heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk 
 in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine 
 
 123 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 eyes ; but know thou, that for all these things God 
 will bring thee into judgment." Eccl. 11:9. 
 
 Man is a free moral agent. He can do right or 
 wrong, can go to Heaven or Hell, as he pleases. 
 If his mind is fully set to do wrong, God will not 
 coerce him into doing that which is right. If he is 
 determined to go to Hell, God will not compel him 
 to go to Heaven. God always respects man's de- 
 liberate choice. As He said to His ancient people; 
 "I have set before thee life and death, the blessing 
 and the curse ; therefore choose life, that thou mayest 
 live," and just so does He leave the welfare and 
 destiny of all men in their own keeping. In view 
 of the tremendous issues of life, our responsibility, 
 gentlemen, becomes as weighty as Eternity. 
 
 While God tells us, in effect, to do as we please, 
 He yet reminds us that He is Sovereign and Judge, 
 and that we are accountable beings, and must, there- 
 fore, answer to Him for all we say and do in this 
 life. Make your own choice, gentlemen, but do not 
 forget that there is judgment here and hereafter for 
 it all. If you always have this inexorable fact in 
 mind, no doubt you will ever choose the right and 
 the good. Such is the teaching of my text. 
 
 What are the ways of your heart? 
 
 I. Some one of you may have set his heart on 
 getting rich. If you mean to get your money hon- 
 estly and use it wisely it is a proper and laudable 
 ambition, and I hope you may get $100,000,000. 
 But, if you propose to get your money by dishonest 
 and rascally methods, I hope you may spend your 
 days in the alms-house, rather. You see I am your 
 124 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 friend and well-wisher; for money dishonestly got- 
 ten will always prove a curse to the man who gets 
 it thus, and his children after him. In these days 
 of intense commercial activity, and mad rush after 
 wealth, with the almost innumerable grab-bag, get- 
 rich-quick schemes that are constantly making se- 
 ductive appeals to the young man ambitious to be 
 rich, one needs to be cautious and careful, or he will 
 soon find himself violating the Golden Rule. But if 
 you have resolved to be rich even if it is at the ex- 
 pense of honor and conscience, go ahead and do as 
 }ou please, God will not compel you to do otherwise ; 
 but there will be judgment for you, here and here- 
 after. Never forget it. 
 
 2. Some one of you may have set his heart on 
 having what he calls a good time. It is a queer 
 notion some men have of what is a good time. I 
 have known a young man to riot around town all 
 night, full of whiskey and the devil, squandering 
 his hard earned money, ruining his physical and 
 intellectual health, his reputation and character, 
 breaking his mother's heart and getting his head 
 broken and pretty generally done for, and call that 
 having a good time. You are at liberty to pursue 
 such a course ; and if you have resolved upon it God 
 will not interfere; but there will be judgment for 
 you here and hereafter. Never forget it. 
 
 What is the sight of your eyes? 
 
 I. God's Word says "Look not thou upon the 
 wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the 
 cup, when it goeth down smoothly ; at last it biteth 
 like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." 
 
 125 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 One cannot buy a glass of honestly distilled whis- 
 key in the United States. When I was a boy the 
 man who kept the country store usually kept a little 
 brown jug under his counter, in which he kept what 
 he called "O be joyful." He distilled it himself 
 from rye and corn. If a man purchased more than 
 a dollar's worth of goods, he was invited to take a 
 drink. If he took more than he could well carry 
 it made him foolish and silly. But men in their 
 hurry to be rich found they could make whiskey 
 easier and cheaper by the aid of drugs. If a man 
 gets more of the kind they now make than he can 
 carry, he becomes a fiend incarnate and wants to 
 kill somebody. This is the explanation for the 
 alarming increase of crime in the country, — it is the 
 poison in the whiskey. There never was a case of 
 hog-cholera in the country until they began using 
 drugs in whiskey making. The poison gets into 
 the mash ; it is fed to the hogs and they get the chol- 
 era. If you, gentlemen, think you can put into your 
 stomachs with safety to yourselves, that which will 
 give the cholera to hogs, of course you are at lib- 
 erty to do so, but if you do, I think you are not very 
 bright and wise. 
 
 But the people are more largely given to beer 
 drinking. I also believe you can not buy one glass 
 of honestly made, malt, hop-brewed beer in the 
 United States. Here are sufficient reasons for so 
 thinking: First, there are not enough hops raised 
 in the United States to make the beer that is drank 
 in New York City alone. We are exporting almost 
 as many hops as we are importing. Second, from 
 126 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 indisputable evidence in my possession, I know that 
 while the output of beer is rapidly increasing the use 
 of malt is quite as rapidly decreasing. Third, the 
 brewer, the jobber and the saloon keeper all get 
 rich fast, and the beer is sold at a nickel a schooner. 
 I know as well as I can know anything that not 
 one man can get rich selling beer at that price, if 
 it is made out of hops and malt, honestly. No, what 
 is called lager-beer is nothing but slop. Now then, 
 gentlemen, if you wish to make slop-pails of your 
 stomachs, you are at liberty to do so. But in view 
 of the fact that the stomach is the work-shop of the 
 body, and the center of the nervous organism, I sub- 
 mit that it will be to your advantage not to misuse 
 it after this fashion. 
 
 It is said that quite 100,000 persons die of alco- 
 hol every year in the United States. If this is ap- 
 proximately true, what a blighting and withering 
 curse it is ! Surely "it biteth like a serpent and 
 stingeth like an adder." But I am inclined to think 
 that far more than this great number fall victims to 
 this damnable and damning traffic. There are two 
 distinctive temperaments among men, /. e., the san- 
 guine and the lymphatic. Alcohol never digests 
 or assimilates. No matter in what form it is taken 
 into the stomach, it passes through the chyme and 
 the chyle into the blood. In the case of the man of 
 the sanguine temperament, it goes to his head, and 
 becoming thereby top-heavy, he reels wdien he tries 
 to walk, and clucks like an old hen when he attempts 
 to talk. When this man dies, it is known of what he 
 died, because he could not conceal it. But in the case 
 127 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 of the man of a lymphatic temperament it is other- 
 wise. When the alcohol gets into his blood it goes to 
 the liver. He's the man of whom it is said "He car- 
 ries his whiskey." This is so because the liver is 
 "midship" as sailors say. He can drink all day and 
 walk a chalk line home. But he drops off suddenly, 
 and they say it was heart-failure or apoplexy. INIost 
 of the people who know him believe this, because 
 they never saw him drinking or drunk. But if you 
 will cut him open and uncover his liver, it will appear 
 like the bottom of an iron-monger's shoe ; he has 
 died of what the physicians call "Hob-nail liver" — 
 alcohol on the liver. Now then, gentlemen, you can 
 squander your money for drink, disgrace yourselves, 
 superinduce premature physical and mental decay, 
 go down to an untimely and dishonored grave, and 
 to a drunkard's Hell if you so wish it ; but surely 
 such a course is unwise and wicked. Remember 
 there will be a judgment here and hereafter. Never 
 forget it. 
 
 2. Job said, "I made a covenant with mine eyes; 
 * * * pQj. it js a f^i-g ti^gi^ consumeth unto des- 
 truction, and would root out all mine increase." 
 
 The eye is the doorway to the seat of the pas- 
 sions. If, like Job, we covenant not to look upon 
 anything that suggests an unclean or evil thought, 
 our lives and minds will be pure and beautiful. If 
 we give license to our eyes, our thoughts and lives 
 will be impure, vulgar and lewd. For, if our pas- 
 sions arc aroused they are easily enticed by Satan 
 into sin. Licentiousness "is a fire that will consume 
 unto destruction." I knew a young man who. when 
 128 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 he reached his majority, had $50,cx)0 in the bank 
 subject to his check, and real estate worth as much 
 more. He did not "make a covenant with his eyes.' 
 His passions were aroused and he went to the house 
 of her whose "steps take hold on Hell." In less than 
 five years his money and property were gone and 
 he was a physical wreck, I knew another young 
 man who did not "make a covenant with his eyes." 
 He was lead into secret sin. He was an alumnus 
 of a prominent University. He had begun the prac- 
 tice of law. One day in his office he put a pistol to 
 his head and fired. The bullet did not penetrate his 
 head, but circled it under the scalp. He told the 
 physician who was summoned, of hfs sinful practices 
 and said "They have become so loathsome to me 
 that I do not want to live longer." This is the story 
 of one-half the suicides committed, as it is likewise 
 an explanation for three-fourths of the idiocy and 
 imbecility in the world to-day. It truly "is a fire that 
 consumeth unto destruction." But not only this but 
 it also "would root out all mine increase." God's 
 law declares that He visits "the iniquities of the 
 fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon 
 the fourth generations of them that hate me." This 
 is physiologically demonstrable. The descendants of 
 a man who has indulged in licentious practices deter- 
 iorate until the "third or fourth generations," which 
 will be found to be sterile. There will be no fifth 
 generation for such a man. This is the story of the 
 nations of antiquity. Brush back the dust of cen- 
 turies and read. When they were virtuous they in- 
 creased in numbers, in strength and possessions. 
 I 129 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 When they became great they became sensual and 
 then began to decline in physical and mental energy, 
 until they reached a point where they were unable to 
 successfully resist the encroachments and onslaughts 
 of their ruder and more virtuous neighbors ; and 
 they ceased to be. Gentlemen, you had far better 
 trifle with a wire with 50,000 voltage upon it, than 
 to fall into licentious practices. "It is a fire that 
 consumeth unto destruction, and would root out all 
 my increase." But you are at liberty to do as you 
 please. You can drop the reins on the neck of your 
 lust and ride like Jehu Hellward ; God will not com- 
 pel you to be virtuous; but if you are so unwise, 
 remember, there will be judgment here and here- 
 after. Never forget it. 
 
 Let us now turn this around and consider the mat- 
 ter under discussion from another point of view. 
 
 First. You are ambitious to be rich. You re- 
 member that I wished you well, if you intended to 
 get your money honestly and use it wisely. But do 
 not forget there are some things worth infinitely 
 more than all sordid wealth ; do not barter these for 
 gold. For instance, "A little that a righteous man 
 hath is better than the riches of many wicked." 
 (Psa. 37: 16.) "A conscience void of oflPense to- 
 ward God and toward men" (Acts 24: 16) is of 
 priceless value. Able to look God-ward and know 
 you are obeying His holy laws, and any man in the 
 face and able to truthfully say, "I have done by you 
 as I would be done by," — this is worth more to a man 
 than all earthly possessions. 
 
 Again — "A good name is rather to be chosen than 
 130 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 great riches, and loving favor than silver and gold." 
 (Prov. 22: I.) When my father died he left me 
 never a penny nor a foot of land ; but he left mc 
 that which has been worth more to me than all 
 money and property, viz. ; the heritage of a clean, 
 manly, honorable. Christian name and life. I have 
 never seen the time nor place I was ashamed to 
 acknowledge that David Munhall was my father. 
 Be careful of your good name. It is of priceless 
 worth. 
 
 Also — Jesus said: "But lay up for yourselves 
 treasures in Heaven," etc. (Matt. 6: 20). My 
 brother, if you live to be eighty years old and then 
 die, you will have lived only 29,220 days, or 701,280 
 hours. So the longest life is very brief. I submit, 
 gentlemen, that it is every way better to live these 
 days of our earthly sojourn in poverty, with a con- 
 science void of offense toward God and toward 
 men, preserving unsullied our good name, and 
 then for all Eternity enjoy the inexhaustible riches 
 and unfading glories of the heavenly life, than 
 at the sacrifice of conscience and a good name 
 become a millionaire many times over, and then be 
 banished from the presence of the Holy One into 
 outer darkness where "there shall be w^eeping and 
 gnashing of teeth." 
 
 Second. Mere earthly pleasures are necessarily 
 unsatisfying. They may, for the time, seem to sat- 
 isfy ; but, too often, alas ! indulgence in them is fol- 
 lowed by regret and heartache. But w^hen a man is 
 reconciled to God, and has His presence to go with 
 him, His unfailing blessing to rest upon him, then he 
 
 131 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 can understand what the Psahiiist meant when he 
 said "How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God ! 
 therefore the children of men put their trust under 
 the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abun- 
 dantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house ; and 
 thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleas- 
 ures." As the rivers pour their floods ceaselessly to 
 the sea, so the pleasures God will give to the obe- 
 dient soul, shall be all satisfying and constant. ''The 
 blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich ; and he addeth 
 no sorrow with it." (Prov. 10:22.) At the last 
 earthly pleasures can have nothing to offer us that 
 we desire or need. But to those who love and obey 
 God there are the all-satisfying pleasures here, and 
 concerning the other life we know in God's "pres- 
 ence is fullness of joy ; at thy right hand there are 
 pleasures for evermore." (Psa. 16: 11.) 
 
 Third. The Psalmist prayed "Open thou mine 
 eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy 
 law." The Apostle Paul gave expression to the 
 same thought when he prayed "That the God of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give 
 unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
 knowledge of him ; the eyes of your understanding 
 being enlightened that ye may know what is the 
 hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory 
 of his inheritance in the saints," etc. (Eph. 
 1 : 17-23.) 
 
 Our sins have separated and estranged us from 
 
 God. God has "made peace through the blood of 
 
 his Cross, by him to reconcile all things unto 
 
 himself." But our "repentance toward God and 
 
 132 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" are reckoned as 
 certain elements in the procuring cause of our 
 reconciliation and salvation as the atoning work ac- 
 complished by the Son of God upon Golgotha's 
 Cross. If, therefore, gentlemen, you will repent 
 and believe you will "have peace with God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ" and may, while living here, 
 enjoy unhindered fellowship with God, the Father 
 Almighty, and then dwell with Him forever amid 
 the ineffable delights of the Heavenlies. 
 
 Young gentlemen, as I look into your faces know- 
 ing what are the temptations that beset you, and the 
 problems of life and the tremendous issues in- 
 volved, I say, you need God on your side in order 
 that life may be pure, noble and heroic ; that it may 
 be a success; that it may be worth living; to say 
 nothing of the hereafter. I therefore, by the sub- 
 limest considerations man can possibly consider, ex- 
 hort you to now open your minds, hearts and lives 
 to the truth as it is in our Lord Jesus Christ, and get 
 right with God. 
 
 Dr. Munhall always concludes this discourse by 
 relating the story of his conversion, and telling of 
 some of his subsequent experiences. 
 
 133 
 
CHAPTER THIRTEENTH. 
 
 THE WHITE LIFE.* 
 
 The Rev. W. E. Biederwolf is one of the most 
 successful evangeHsts of. the present day. If one 
 feature of his work should be 
 more emphasized than another 
 it is his ability to influence men. 
 This chapter is an abridgement 
 of his sermon on the "White 
 Life." God has used it to turn 
 the attention of thousands unto 
 Himself in many cities and 
 towns where it has been deliv- 
 ered. As a result of it hun- 
 dreds have accepted Jesus 
 Christ as a Savior. 
 
 "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his 
 way ?" — Psalm 3 : 9. 
 
 Scripture — 2 Sam. 18. 
 
 David is king of Israel and Absalom his own boy 
 is arch-conspirator against the throne. David has 
 fled from Jerusalem and gone to a city beyond 
 the Jordan, while close at hand in the forest of 
 
 •Tliis address ("White Life No. 2") is not the "White Life" as 
 published in booklet form, which is wholly a personal purity talk; 
 the two serve different purposes. 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Ephraim a hard-fought battle is in progress, and 
 at the head of Israel's army is the king's own son. 
 Great issues are involved ; the throne of David and 
 his life as well are at stake. The king is at the gate 
 of the city while the watchman has mounted the 
 wall to look for coming news of the battle. As 
 he looks he sees two men running alone ; he has 
 no sooner told the king below than the men arrive 
 in breathless haste with tidings from the field. The 
 fortunes of the day have been with David's troops. 
 The enemy has suffered defeat, the rebellion has 
 been crushed, and its leader, with three arrows 
 tiirough his heart, is hanging by his hair among the 
 boughs of an oak. But while the returning troops 
 are shouting their songs of triumph, the king, 
 broken-hearted, goes up to the chamber 'over the 
 gate to weep, and as he goes thus he says: "O, 
 my son, Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! 
 Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my 
 son, my son !" 
 
 David was weeping over a wasted life. What 
 splendid opportunities this young man did have for 
 a bright and honorable career ! He had had all 
 that any young man could have. Fortune had 
 smiled upon him and laid at his feet all the wealth, 
 the culture and knowledge of an oriental mon- 
 archy. What prospects for the years to come, but 
 what a miserable failure he made of it all ! And 
 he's not the only young man of whom I know or 
 you know who has had opportunities just as good 
 as his, but whose sun has gone down at high noon 
 
 135 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 and whose life has been wrecked just as sadly as 
 this one of which we speak. 
 
 Absalom's career might briefly be summed up by 
 saying: "He was a fast young man." He was 
 rich. It might have been better for him if he had 
 been poor. If wealth is the gift of fortune, then 
 the smile of fortune often makes a man unfortunate. 
 You may not have to work for your living, but you 
 do have to work for your character, and the man 
 who has his living made for him has a pretty hard 
 row to hoe if out of the God-given material of his 
 own self he carves and chisels a character that shall 
 stand the test both of time and of eternity. Money 
 is all right if honestly acquired. Get all you can, 
 but don't can all you get. Use it for God and 
 your family and it will bring a blessing into your 
 life, but remember that great wealth has kept more 
 young men away from a pure life than ever has 
 the want of it. 
 
 Great wealth led Absalom, as it does so many 
 young men today, into high life, and high life led 
 him, as it does so many young men to-day, into a 
 fast life, and fast life is invariably the macadamized 
 road to hell. Young men, let your ambition rise 
 higher than to be a mere pet in society. Life is a 
 battle, a real stern conflict, and a good many of us 
 have already found it out, and it's not going to be 
 fought with quaker guns and toy pistols, and there 
 isn't any room for the feather-brained dude, the 
 young man with more collar than culture. 
 
 136 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 "The young man who would 
 Be a woman if he could ; 
 But since he can't does all he can 
 To show the world he's not a man." 
 
 And the young man who finds his chief dehght 
 in the wine room and the bilHard room and the 
 cheap theatre will find himself enervated for the 
 struggle and defeated in the contest. 
 
 Now, if we had time, we might easily see that 
 Absalom was guilty of all the sins peculiar to his 
 time and long years after this scene occurred his old 
 white-haired and broken-hearted father took up his 
 pen and wrote these words: "Wherewithal shall 
 a young man cleanse his way?" Now David knew 
 what he was writing about from bitter experience; 
 and if there is one man in this audience or in all 
 this city whose life can't be made a little whiter 
 and a little cleaner and a little more Christlike by 
 the grace of God, he's not like the rest of us poor 
 fellows. God help us ! and God help him too, for 
 I verily believe that no man's life is so unclean as 
 he who with brazen face will boast that he needs 
 no cleansing whatsoever. God give us honest 
 hearts just now. 
 
 SABBATH DESECRATION. 
 
 What about Sabbath desecration? The former 
 holy hush of God's best day has given way to the 
 rabble rush for pleasure and the greed for gold. 
 If a man had given you six dollars, it would be 
 pretty mean to steal his seventh and last one, 
 wouldn't it ? And it seems to me the same principle 
 
 137 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ought to keep a man from using God's seventh and 
 sacred day in a way to please himself when God 
 has already given him six days in which to attend 
 to the business and pleasures of this world. It 
 may be there are some here who have already 
 desecrated this day, and I want to ask you, if God 
 lets you live to see the light of another Sabbath, 
 that you will spend its sacred hours so that at the 
 going down of its sun you can say, I have lived 
 this day just as I would have lived it had I known 
 I was to meet my God at its close. 
 
 PROFANITY. 
 
 What about the sin of profanity — this high crime 
 of taking the name of God in vain with almost 
 every sentence that some men utter? I wonder 
 if there's anybody here that needs to have his way 
 cleansed from a thing like that? I sometimes feel 
 a sense of pity for the victim of' certain habits, but 
 there's no sin that's so absolutely senseless and so 
 little to be excused as this habitual scorching the 
 lips with the name of the most holy God in pro- 
 fanity. The man who does it without effort or 
 desire to cease from it is low-grained in his fiber 
 and altogether unworthy of being recognized as a 
 gentleman. You're not having any trouble to un- 
 derstand me, are you? It's a sad commentary on 
 men when a mother can't send her child down the 
 street on an errand unless he has his little heart 
 sowed full of the seeds of profanity before he gets 
 back. I heard a father the other day utter a most 
 damnable oath before his little seven-year-old boy. 
 
 138 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Man, you'd better be dead and in your grave than 
 to be living- with those given to you by God and be 
 guilty of a thing like that. 
 
 INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 What about the sin of intemperance; this awful 
 vice that holds in its clutch 250,000 of the once 
 fairest of our land, and sends 70,000 of them every 
 year down into a drunkard's grave? I read the 
 other day that the beer drank in this country every 
 year would fill a canal forty feet wide and fourteen 
 feet deep and twenty miles long. I know a lot of 
 fellows who'd like to swim in a canal like that. 
 It is told of Jonah in the Bible that he ran away 
 from God and entering a ship to go down to 
 Tarshish he paid the fare thereof, i don't know 
 what he paid ; he was a prophet and may be he 
 traveled on half rates, but anyhow the distance was 
 short and it only cost him a trifle for his passage, 
 but you know that he paid pretty dearly for that 
 trip before he got through with it. And so many 
 a young man has taken his first glass of intoxicating 
 liquor and paid the price thereof, or had some other 
 fellow pay it for him ; only a few cents, five or 
 maybe ten, but if he could have looked down the 
 pathway of time for twenty years and seen the 
 awful cost of that first glass he would have shrunk 
 from it as from a viper in his path. 
 
 GAM BUNG. 
 
 What about gambling? I wonder if there is any 
 need of a cleansing in this place from a thing like 
 
 139 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 that? No doubt there is, and a great need of it 
 too, unless this place differs from most others where 
 I am privileged to speak in these days ; and some 
 of those engaging in it can ill afford to spare the 
 few dollars that ought to go to cheer and brighten 
 the homes and the hearts of the wives and little ones, 
 I think a gambler is about the meanest, lowest, most 
 disreputable thing that passes for a man of any- 
 thing that breathes under the sun. The man who 
 vvith a black heart under a white shirt front will 
 take another man's money on the plea that he ran 
 a chance of losing his own — with every cent he 
 wins and with every penny he loses his infernal 
 passion is fanned into a fiercer flame until he will 
 sacrifice on the altar of his lust, his money, his 
 honor, his home, his love, and what were once his 
 loved ones, and then will rattle his dice and shuffle 
 his cards on the coffin of his victims and pocket the 
 blood red gold of his murdered kindred. Judas 
 was a gambler, and he sold his Christ for thirty 
 pieces of silver, and I read in the Bible that they 
 took the money and bought a graveyard with it, 
 and called it in the Syriac language Aceldema, 
 which means "The Field of Blood." And this after- 
 noon, over every race course, over every faro table 
 and gambling device ; over every church fair or 
 anywhere where a man or woman wins or loses 
 what otherwise would not be theirs, simply because 
 they have taken a risk and chanced to hold the lucky 
 number, I would write the words "Blood Money," 
 and brand everyone thus engaged as a dishonest 
 man or a dishonest woman. 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 IMPURE IMAGINATION. 
 
 What about the sins of the imagination? Oh, 
 these imaginations of ours, how often they are un- 
 holy; this fairy land, the enchanted ground, the 
 place of odorous flowers and rosy clouds and balmy 
 breezes where all unseen and undiscovered this 
 subtle power creates unholy scenes of lust and 
 dream those ravishing, venturesome dreams, and 
 entertaining the bewitching thought rolls it over 
 and over in the mind like a sweet morsel under 
 the tongue until the deed has been dotle and the 
 sin committed a thousand times over in the heart 
 although restraint may be practiced in the outer life. 
 An impure imagination can pierce through any- 
 thing to see a forbidden object; it can lend beauty 
 to beastliness and transform a loathsome vice into 
 a bewitching charm, and once let an impure im- 
 agination be thus brought into play and it will set 
 the whole of a man's sensual nature on fire with 
 Hell. There is not one fallen man or fallen woman 
 — and notice I speak of a fallen man just as I do 
 of a fallen woman ; God only knows which one has 
 fallen the lowest, but I utterly loathe this sentiment 
 that would stone the woman and let the man go 
 free, that would trod the victim of his lust down 
 in the mire and let the man wipe his lips and step 
 back into decent society — ^but I say you will not find 
 one such man or woman whose fall did not lie 
 tlirough a polluting preparatory process in which 
 the imagination was indulged in the forbidden 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 sweets of sin. "Think well and do well will follow 
 thought." 
 
 UNHOLY CONVERSATION. 
 
 What about these lips of ours and the sin of un- 
 holy conversation? In the presence of a depraved 
 prostitute you can hear words that would disgrace 
 the foulest denizen of the lowest pit of Hell, but 
 how men of fairly decent type can scorch their lips 
 with the selfsame stuflf is enough to make a pure 
 man sick in his heart. A private in the army said to 
 me: "Chaplain, what shall I do? The last thing I 
 hear at night in our tent and the first thing in the 
 morning is nothing but the foulest smut and inde- 
 cency", and my own ears were compelled to listen to 
 literal battles of language to see who could put the 
 filthiest things in the dirtiest dress. And the young 
 Cuban lads that hung around the lines of the regi- 
 ments, picking up a few words of Americano, that is 
 supposed to stand for the best and most exalted that 
 civilization can show, the very first words they were 
 taught were those expressive of the dirtiest and 
 foulest things that a rotten heart could imagine. 
 Father, if you have a pure-hearted boy you might 
 better with thanksgiving see him go down to his 
 grave than to see him forming associations with 
 such fetid vultures of moral disease, and better go 
 there yourself than to live and be uttering such cor- 
 ruption in his presence. If I had a boy I'd rather 
 see him living in the slimy air of some foul dungeon 
 with lizards and scorpions and venomous toads, if 
 his heart were pure, than to have him dwell with 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 men who deem a little smut and indecent stories 
 things to laugh at, and then to see in the end a 
 whole nest of hissing vipers wriggling in his heart. 
 Foul language spreads contagion worse than small- 
 pox, and it can't be quarantined, but goes from lip 
 to lip and heart to heart with its withering, damn- 
 ing curse ; like a slimy serpent it winds its venom- 
 ous coils about holy manhood and pure womanhood, 
 and drags them through sensual mire down to Hell, 
 Where is the man who will take upon himself the 
 vow of a white life? Let him begin with a white 
 tongue. 
 
 UNHOLY ACTION. 
 
 And now one step farther. What about the sins 
 of unholy action? Do any of us need to have our 
 way cleansed from that? Young men, boys, may 
 I say a word to you as an elder brother? There 
 is a sin that is blighting our young manhood in 
 its early morning and reliable physicians who are 
 in a position to know say it is well-nigh universal. 
 Let me ask you to be warned and to shrink from it 
 as you would from a viper in your path, for it will 
 sting you to death. 
 
 "keep thyself pure." 
 
 And now but one thing more, and I refer to the 
 human scoundrelism that looks upon a woman as the 
 legitimate prey of a man's beastly passions and pol- 
 luted appetites ; the blackheartedness that sacrifices 
 the pearl of a woman's chastity to swinish lust ; the 
 foul seducer of virtue who, under the promise of 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 speedy marriage, will take advantage of that which 
 is best in a woman — her love — and then fling her 
 aside and let her lie scorned and unhelped in her 
 shame. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he said : 
 "Keep thyself pure," and the doctrine that impurity 
 is a necessity is a damnable fallacy. If there is a 
 man in your city who calls himself a doctor and 
 will tell your young men that such a thing is a 
 health essential, he isn't fit to go into a decent home 
 in your town ; and if there is such a one here now, 
 who would dare to say a thing like that, let him 
 stand up and sa}' it now ; and before God and man 
 you are a liar ! God would never have said, "Thou 
 shalt not," if it were necessary to do so, and all 
 reason and best medical authority declare it to be 
 a chief source of physical debility. He who is not 
 pure is not a man, and out of respect to animals we 
 must not call him a brute. I am not speaking of 
 the man who is falling short, about the man who 
 is making an honest fight against the unholy pas- 
 sions of his life, but about the thing that passes 
 for a man and has given himself up to that which 
 is vile and unclean, and will even gloat over his 
 work when it is done. Is there anything white 
 about a man who will enter a home and with all 
 his gentility and palavering smoothness win the 
 esteem of the parents and the confidence of the 
 daughter and blast it by his infernal rapacious lust? 
 Is there anything white about a brother who ex- 
 pects his sister to be purer than himself? Is there 
 anything white about a man who expects his wife 
 to be pure and is not pure himself? Sam Jones 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 said it, and it is true, "If there is any place in Hell 
 deeper and darker than another it ought to be for 
 that man who will go home at night from a house 
 of shame and pillow his dirty old head by the side 
 of his sweet, virtuous wife." And I call upon you 
 'to enter into a crusade against the foul-mouthed 
 man, to boycott the impure boaster and the betrayer 
 of innocence until the blush ot shame can never 
 come to the face of your daughter or your sister 
 because society tolerates such men to move within 
 its circle. 
 
 Two things ought to be said just here: All these 
 things increase just like the weeds in a garden, un- 
 less they are rooted out. Out in California where 
 they drive the stages down the steep mountain sides, 
 it is necessary to put the brake on hard lest the 
 coach plunge down upon the haunches of the horses. 
 There was some time ago a very godless driver who 
 had been for forty years on a certain route. He 
 was a vile, profane man, who often boasted that he 
 feared neither God, man nor the devil. At last he 
 was on his deathbed, and as he lay there his friends 
 noticed him kicking out with his right foot as if he 
 were reaching for something. They thought it too 
 warm and took off most of the covers, but still he 
 continued to reach out with his right foot. They 
 spoke to him but received no response. At last his 
 old chum, Joe, came and said: "Bill, what's the 
 matter? Isn't there something I can do for you?" 
 And, looking up into Joe's face with a look that Joe 
 said he never could forget. Bill said : "My God, 
 I'm speeding down the hill and I can't find the 
 
 i 145 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 brake." Speeding down hill and I can't find the 
 brake ! Young men, put on the brake at the top of 
 the hill, and stand to-day in the strength of God 
 and your manhood and you can live a life that an 
 angel would be proud to own. 
 
 The other thing is this : We're all guilty ! You 
 may not be a gambler, I may not be a profane man, 
 and you may not be an impure man, but we all 
 of us are sinners and have within us the root of 
 sin from which these things spring. We are not 
 perfect, and we need to have our lives cleansed. 
 How shall it be done ? Listen. "As a man thinketh 
 in his heart so is he." "Out of the heart proceedeth 
 evil thoughts and such like." If the fountain head 
 of a stream is unclean, how can you expect clean 
 water to flow down the river? And if the heart 
 is unclean, how are you going to have pure thoughts 
 to dwell in the mind and pure words to fall from 
 the lips and pure actions to characterize the life? 
 And now listen. "If we confess our sin He is 
 faithful and just to forgive us our sin," — thank 
 God, it makes no difference about the past, — "and 
 to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," You've 
 tried to win the victory alone and you know how 
 you've failed, but listen again. "The Spirit of the 
 life of Christ makes me free from the law of sin 
 and death." Believe it and try it. 
 
 And now I want you to listen to four or five 
 brief reasons why every man of us ought to live 
 the White life, the Christ life, which is the Chris- 
 tian life. 
 
 The first is, it is the manly life. I have never heard 
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FISHING FOR HEN 
 
 of but one man who ever gave any real reason for 
 not being a Christian, and he frankly confessed that 
 he wasn't man enough. It takes a man to be a 
 Christian; anybody can live the other kind of life. 
 There are some men who are daring to refuse the 
 surrender of their lives of God, thinking to do just 
 as they please, as long as they please, and expecting 
 God to save them when they get a good ready to 
 let Him. Man, if you've ever thought a thing like 
 that, never think it again and lay claim to being a 
 real man. 
 
 Second, it is the reasonable life. I have heard 
 of a man who said he was going to decide this thing 
 in a reasonable way, and that he would write down 
 on one piece of paper all the reasons why he ought 
 to be a Christian, and on another all the reasons 
 why he ought not to be a Christian, and then he 
 would weigh the matter in a rational way and decide 
 like a reasonable man. And so he began. He wrote 
 first the reasons why he ought to be a Christian, 
 and his pen just flew down the paper and up on the 
 other side until it was all full of reasons ; and then 
 he began with the reasons why he ought not to be 
 a Christian. He put down the figure one and there 
 his pen stopped. He could not think of one single 
 reason why he ought not to be a Christian. And 
 you can't either. There are no such reasons. Some 
 men talk and act as though the gospels were un- 
 worthy the endorsement of a thinking brain, but, 
 friends, the brains of the world are marshalled on 
 the side of the gospel. Mr. Gladstone was a brainy 
 man, wasn't he? and he said: "Forty years have 
 147 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 I been in the service of my country, and I have 
 come in contact with sixty of the master minds ot 
 the kingdom, and they were all Christians but three 
 or four." Your martyred president was not too 
 brainy to be a Christian. The present president is 
 not too brainy to be a Christian. No, brother, come 
 with all your intellect to-day and you will find your- 
 self in agreeable company as far as brains go. 
 
 In the third place, it is the life of great blessing. 
 Every man who has tried it knows tl/is is true. 
 Why, man, you can lie down to sleep every night 
 with heaven in your soul if you're living a Chris- 
 tian life ; and oh, what it would mean for the home 
 if father and husband were only a Christian. 
 
 In the fourth place, it is the heavenly life. Paul 
 says: "They that do such things shall not inherit 
 the kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 I have read the story of a man upon whom the 
 drink habit had fastened its terrible grip ; it took 
 his wife and child from a beautiful home to a 
 miserable garret. One day a message came to him 
 while in a drunken stupor, saying to him that if 
 he wanted to see his little boy alive he must come 
 at once. It sobered him instantly, and, going home, 
 he found his boy with but an hour of life before 
 him. He had been playing in the street and was 
 run over by a large wagon and terribly crushed. 
 As the father came and knelt at the cot, the little 
 fellow took his hand and said: "Father, I can't 
 die till you promise me you will give up your sin 
 and meet me and mamma in Heaven." "And," said 
 the man, "with his hand in mine I promised God 
 148 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 I'd make an honest effort to give up my sin, and 
 promised my boy I'd meet him in the better world, 
 and ever since that time I have felt the clutch of 
 my little boy's hand pulling me higher and higher, 
 and I know I can't help reaching Heaven at last." 
 And, man, if you ever reach Heaven, if in your re- 
 deemed state you ever meet again those you love, 
 it will be when you take your stand for God with 
 the other Christian men of this community, and 
 by His help make an honest effort to forsake your 
 sin. 
 
 Let me now mention a last reason, and it seems 
 to m'e it ought to stir all that is best and noblest 
 in every man here. It is this : others need your help. 
 There are men here who could stand up to-day and 
 say: "I mean henceforth to be a Christian man," 
 and your whole family would come running into 
 the kingdom of God ; but because you have not had 
 the courage or have not had the concern to take 
 your stand boldly on the side of God, you have been 
 standing in the way of those whom God has given 
 you. 
 
 I said this one time in Ohio, and a man well on 
 in years came to me at the close of the meeting 
 and said: "Did you mean what you said?" And 
 I replied, I did most certainly mean that very thing ; 
 and as I took the big man's hand (for he was an 
 unusually large fellow) his lips began to tremble 
 and a tear stole in his eye as he said : "And to 
 think of it that last year my nineteen-year-old boy 
 was taken from me, and in all his life he had never 
 heard his father pray." 
 
 149 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 And I said : "Mr. Patton, give your heart to 
 God to-night." And he replied: "By the help of 
 God I mean to be a Christian." 
 
 The next night when the invitation was given I 
 saw him coming down the aisle with a young lady, 
 and when he reached the front he said : "Mr. 
 Biederwolf, this is my daughter." The next night 
 I saw that young lady sitting with another and 
 across the aisle was Mr. Patton with an elderly 
 woman, and while the opportunity was being given 
 for people to come to Christ I looked down among 
 those who stood at the front, and there stood this 
 man with the other just mentioned, and calling me 
 to him, he said, "Mr. Biederwolf, this is my other 
 daughter and this is my wife," and there he was 
 with his entire family inside the kingdom of God, 
 because he had done at last what for many long 
 years the Spirit of God had been constraining him 
 to do. 
 
 There are men here this afternoon who have been 
 blighting the faith of your wives and by your in- 
 difference to the things of God have been throwing 
 wet blankets on the endeavor of the mother to train 
 the little one in the way of Christ ; there are fathers 
 here to-day whose children not only have never 
 heard you pray, but in whose little hearts the tender 
 sprout of faith and love is being frozen by your 
 disposition toward Christ and the concerns of the 
 soul. 
 
 Oh, man, you've been worse than the Chinese, for 
 while they dwarf the feet of their little ones you 
 have been dwarfing their souls and crushing out of 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 their hearts every inclination to be pure and holy 
 and Christlike. Father, in God's name, what do you 
 mean? You've all doubtless heard the story; I tell 
 it only because it is so forceful, the story of a man 
 going out to his barn one wintry morning after 
 a fresh fall of snow. He did not know his little 
 six-year-old boy was following until he heard the 
 little voice behind him, saying: "Papa, I'se putting 
 my feet in your tracks," and looking back he saw 
 the child stretching out his little legs and putting 
 his foot in the place made by his father's in the 
 snow. Oh, father, that very thing is true of your 
 child to-day ; putting his feet in your tracks ; which 
 way are those tracks leading? 
 
 Mrs. J. K. Barney has been called "the prison 
 angel" ; and she has befriended more prisoners per- 
 haps than any other woman of our day. Entering 
 a New England prison one day, the warden said to 
 her: "Mrs. Barney, there is a young prisoner 
 dying; we have sent for his mother, but there has 
 been a wreck on the old Cape Colony Road and 
 she cannot arrive before her boy is dead. Won't you 
 be a mother to him ?" Mrs. Barney knew what that 
 meant ; she went up to his bed and talked to him 
 about God, and heard him say his faith was in 
 Christ. Then he said: "Mrs. Barney, they tell me 
 mother can't get here until after I am gone ; .won't 
 you say to her for me that I asked her to kiss me 
 and say she would forgive me for all my sins 
 against her?" and a few moments after the young 
 man was dead. About an hour later the old train 
 came rolling in. The mother's first inquiry was for 
 
 i=;i 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 her boy, and when told he was gone, she had to be 
 fairly carried up the stairs to where he lay. Mrs. 
 Barney delivered the message and what do you sup- 
 pose the mother did ? Just what your mother would 
 done if you had lain in the young man's place. She 
 lifted back the sheet, and while tears streamed from 
 her eyes she kissed his pale face and said: "Jo^. 
 your mother has come and she forgives you, but, O 
 God, his father." 
 
 "Mrs. Barney," she said, "I suppose you think 
 that this is a strange prayer to make, but when this 
 boy was but nine years old I heard him utter an 
 awful oath, and when I reproved him for it, he said : 
 'Why, mamma, I heard papa say that last night,' 
 and when he was but twelve I found him half in- 
 toxicated, and with these arms I carried him into 
 the home and held him until the stupor had worn 
 away, and heard him say that the one who gave 
 him the drink was his father. Mrs. Barney," she 
 said, "that was the beginning; this is the end," and 
 stooping down, she kissed him again and said : "Joe, 
 your mother has come and she forgives you, but, 
 oh, my God, the father." 
 
 Listen, men, while I tell you something better 
 than that. A young lad of fourteen lay dying and 
 the broken-hearted father was kneeling by the bed- 
 side. "Willie," he said, "I have a sad message for 
 you; the doctor tells me you are dying." The little 
 boy closed his eyes just a minute and then, as a 
 sweet smile stole across his face, he opened them 
 and said: "Papa, I'm not afraid to die and when I 
 die I'll hurry up and find out Jesus and tell Him I 
 
 152 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 had the best papa in all the world because you 
 taught me all my days to love Him." 
 
 Oh, father, if your boy were taken from you to- 
 night could he say a thing like that about you? 
 When the time comes that I must stand by the open 
 grave of those I love I want to be able to lift my 
 face to Heaven and say that while they were with 
 me I did all I could to help them be as God would 
 have them be. Don't you? And God knows 
 I could not say that, and you could not say it, un- 
 less we have been earnest and positive Christian 
 men ourselves ; and when the time comes when I 
 must meet them again in the presence of the God of 
 us all, I want that they shall be able to witness be- 
 fore Him that I was a help and not a hindrance to 
 them on their way to Heaven. Don't you ? And if 
 you do, will you say, "From this day I mean as 
 far as I can to live the life I believe God wants 
 me to live" ? 
 
 153 
 
CHAPTER FOURTEENTH. 
 
 A FATAL MISTAKE. 
 
 Fred B. Smith lias been called one of the greatest 
 preachers to young men in modern times. I have 
 no hesitation in saying that I 
 have never seen another audi- 
 ence so moved as the audience 
 in Topeka, Kansas, when Mr. 
 Smith preached the following 
 sermon. 
 
 All of his time is now de- 
 voted to this special work for 
 men. He is hnnself so manly 
 in his presentation of the gos- 
 pel and so thoroughly imbued 
 with the impression that every 
 man needs Jesus Christ to com- 
 plete and control his life, that 
 his arguments and pleadings are well nigh irre- 
 sistible. He is a master in his control of audiences, 
 and in his after-meeting work is as strong as any 
 evangelist I have ever known. 
 
 I saw more than three hundred men take a stand 
 for Christ at the close of this sermon. Several thou- 
 sand men were present and the attention and in- 
 terest manifested were intense. 
 
 He said: I will read a few verses from the loth 
 chapter of Mark's Gospel, beginning with the 17th 
 verse : * * * 
 
 FRED B. SMITH. 
 
 154 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 For many years in my life when I wanted to refer 
 to some character that was beautiful and that would 
 inspire high and noble living, I always referred to 
 the "Rich Young Ruler," described in this scripture, 
 but suddenly the whole picture of his life and 
 record changed from one of inspiration to one of 
 warning, and since, in increasing measure, has this 
 warning intensified and the seriousness of his error 
 become more apparent. I want, if possible, there- 
 fore to bring from this young man's experience a 
 timely message of warning to other young men that 
 may be following in the channel of his thought. 
 
 There are four such warnings that I wish to speak 
 of. The first one suggests itself to all of you. Al- 
 ways and everywhere the preacher has never tired 
 of referring to this young man as a zcarniug to the 
 rich man. From my boyhood, as I look back, it 
 seems to me that that is the picture I have always 
 had of this man. Over and over again has he been 
 held up as a warning to the man that was absorbed 
 in getting wealth. Personally I have no doubt 
 about that warning being true. There can be no 
 mistaking this message, and here is a clarion ring- 
 ing voice warnmg every man on the question ot 
 money. I believe the words of Jesus Christ need 
 but very little explanation. If ever there was a 
 man that spoke plainly that man was the Son of 
 God. And when He said: "How hardly shall a rich 
 man enter the kingdom of God," I think He meant 
 just what He said If He didn't mean that, I feel 
 sure He would have said what He meant. There- 
 fore this message comes, first, with that warning in 
 
 155 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 J 
 
 it. Two things I think are important, though: You 
 will notice that when the disciples were so aston- 
 ished at that statement, Jesus said: "How hardly 
 shall they that inist in riches enter the kingdom of 
 God." I do not know of a place in the Bible where 
 wealth as such is condemned, but everywhere run- 
 ning through it the right use of wealth is exalted. 
 It is well for us to remember that this is not a 
 sweeping charge against every man that is engaged 
 in getting wealth. It is well for us to remember 
 the other thing also, namely : It is not a question of 
 the amount of money involved. One man may be 
 as much kept away from God over getting ten dol- 
 lars a week as another man is in getting ten thou- 
 sand. It is not a question of how much it is. It 
 is simply a question of this : Has the struggle for 
 bread, the conquest for gain, the battle of the com- 
 mercial world, so consumed and so fascinated you 
 that you have shut God out of your life? If it has, 
 Jesus Christ speaks again about it when he says to 
 you : "How hardly shall the man that is so con- 
 sumed with things of this world ever enter the 
 kingdom of God." There is that warning, but I 
 think it is only on the surface, and I feel sure that if 
 that had been the only teaching that Jesus intended 
 to leave from this incident. He would not have given 
 it a place in His Book. 
 
 Wc pass to the second warning. Not only is that 
 a warning to the rich man, but it is a warning to 
 another very large class. More times in the cycle 
 of a year in my own life I hear this, than any other 
 one objection to the religious life. When I press 
 
 156 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 many a man about his personal obligation to live 
 for God, he will answer me in this way : He says, 
 "It is true, I am not a religious man. I have never 
 personally accepted of Jesus Christ. I have never 
 affiliated myself with organized Christianity; but I 
 believe in it, and more than that, I am trying to 
 live an honest, upright life." Or, to be very quick 
 with my figure: That man says to me, "I am not 
 a professing Christian man ; I have never entered 
 the religious life; hut I am living a moral life," and 
 he tells me that he pays his debts, that he is kind 
 to his family, and tries to be a good citizen, and 
 that therefore he feels his account is right with God. 
 
 Hear me ! 
 
 There is not a man in all this vast audience, not 
 one ; there is not a man in the beautiful city of 
 Topeka ; there is not a man in the whole state of 
 Kansas ; there is not one man living in these United 
 States, nor on this North American continent — there 
 is not one man living to-day in the whole realm of 
 the world, that can stand up and say, "My life has 
 been equal to that of the rich young ruler." Here 
 was a moral man of the moral men. When Jesus 
 asked him about that half of the commandments 
 that had to do with his relation to men, recall what 
 he said. Quickly this young man answered: "I 
 have kept all of them from my youth." If there is 
 a man in this audience that dare stand up and say 
 that from his youth he has kept all of these com- 
 mandments, I pause to let that man rise to declare 
 that he has so lived. We know he has not, and I 
 am sure that when Jesus held the interview with 
 
 157 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 this young man, He was bringing out with His di- 
 vine wisdom an answer forever and eternally to that 
 carping man that would rob God of the glory of 
 his life by saying: "I am living a moral life." 
 There is many a man that seems to think there is 
 some credit due him because he is out of jail. I 
 suspect there are a lot of men in this audience that 
 ought to be in jail, and if the truth was known about 
 some of you, they would put you in jail before the 
 sun goes down. The fact that you are out of jail 
 does not prove very much. The religious life is 
 not composed of negations, is not a system of nega- 
 tives. God not only wants you to keep from theft 
 and from stealing and from adultery and gambling 
 and from murder and the like, but, hear me! 
 Brother, God wants your heart; God wants your 
 life. God wants your service. God wants your 
 ALL! He will have that, or He will have nothing. 
 No standard of morality, be it ever so high, is 
 equivalent to, the demand God has on every man's 
 life through the grace of Jesus Christ. There is the 
 warning to the rich man ; and there is the warning 
 to the man that is living only by human standards. 
 There is another warning this young man brings. 
 He teaches me that it is entirely possible for a 
 man to be very, very near the kingdom of God, and 
 then he forever lost. Look at this scene, if you will : 
 This man running out by the roadside, and as he 
 ran, in his intensity he threw himself down on the 
 ground upon his knees in salutation, and said, "Oh, 
 Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal 
 life?" Had it been the custom of the day, he could 
 
 158 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 have reached out and taken the hand that was to 
 be scarred for the sins of the world. This young 
 man knelt there, and he heard the way of salvation, 
 not from the lips of a faltering prophet, priest or 
 king. This young man heard the way of salva- 
 tion from the very author of it, while He paused 
 in His busy life to tell that young man what he 
 must do to be saved. He had the privilege that 
 some of us are longing for and our souls are yearn- 
 ing for the hour when it shall burst upon us. This 
 young man saw "face to face" the Savior of the 
 world. 
 
 This young man had the privilege. He looked 
 into the very eyes and heard the words and stood 
 in the presence of the Son of God, and yet we see 
 him as he turns sorrowing away and, so far as we 
 know, he was a lost man. 
 
 Only a little while ago I rose on a Sunday morn- 
 ing early, and read all of Luke's Gospel to see if 
 I could find some character somewhere that would 
 correspond with this young man that had at a later 
 time come back in his life and repented and ac- 
 cepted of Jesus Christ ; but I could not find one. I 
 do not know, but so far as the record is given us, 
 after being so very near that line of decision, he 
 drifted out into the world and went into a Christ- 
 less eternity, without God, without hope. 
 
 My warning is this : You are living in a land 
 where there are more church spires pointing their 
 majestic finger toward God than in any other land 
 in the world, save one. More sweet chimes in 
 America ring calling the people to God and to prayer 
 159 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 tlian in any other land in all the world. More 
 prayers are being said now than ever in the history 
 of life. This is it: My brother, you note my mes- 
 sage to-day ! You may live in this land ; you may 
 live in a place where your streets are crowded with 
 churches; you may hear over and over again the 
 yearning appeal of the Gospel. You may have been 
 prayed over by the sweetest mother that ever sung 
 a lullaby hymn to her child. You may have been 
 counselled by the Godliest father that ever lived. 
 You may have been reared under the very dripping 
 of the sanctuary of the church of God, and despite 
 it all, you may be drifting out into the world and 
 into sin, to go out of this life without Christ, with- 
 out hope. 
 
 Almost in the Kingdom, and yet he was lost. Oh, 
 I wonder how many men there are in this audience 
 that you can look back now to times when you were 
 on the very verge of giving your heart to God and 
 then somehow swung away from it? I suspect 
 while I stand here now I am delivering the last 
 message to some man. I suspect some man is stand- 
 ing on the mount this afternoon and is going to hear 
 his last Gospel message. Either accept it, or turn 
 away into the world to spurn God and trample it 
 under foot, and go out of life without God. The 
 saddest hymn in all hymnology is that one we some- 
 times sing, "Almost Persuaded." You have been 
 there — "almost persuaded." It closes thus: 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 "Almost, cannot avail; 
 Almost, is but to fail. 
 Sad, sad that bitter wail, 
 Almost, but lost." 
 
 Let this man speak to you to-day from 1900 years 
 ago that it is possible for a man to be very nearly 
 in the kingdom of God and then be forever lost. 
 
 There is another warning. Not only does this in- 
 cident warn me of the danger of becoming over 
 much consumed in getting wealth, and of the danger 
 of trusting alone in a moral standard, but that it is 
 possible for a man to be very nearly saved, and then 
 be lost. I want you to get this last one. Get that 
 scene before you vividly. The young man running 
 out by the roadside. He throws himself on the 
 ground and looks up in the face of Jesus. He says : 
 "Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal 
 life?'' What did Jesus say to him? Did he say: 
 "You must quit that gambling, quit that stealing, 
 quit that lying. Young man, put that impurity out 
 of your life?" Not a word of it. Those things 
 were foreign to his life. Hear it ! Jesus looked on 
 that young man and said He loved him, and then 
 said, Young man, rich young man, honest young 
 man, pure young man, noble young man, "ONE 
 THIXG THOU LACK EST!" 
 
 I know of no other four words in the Bible that 
 carry such ponderous power with them. "One thing 
 thou lackest." If I should ever write a book, these 
 four words will be the theme of it. You may start 
 to-day and you may go around the world, and as 
 
 K 161 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 you go take a paint-pot and brush and painter with 
 you, and as you travel around you may go to every 
 penitentiary, where the young men pace back and 
 forth behind the bars, Hke caged Hons with faces 
 blanched white ; and when you come to the cell you 
 need not write over it the word "Murderer" or 
 **Robber." You may simply write over every cell in 
 that penitentiary these four words: "One thing 
 thou lackest." And it will tell the secret of the life 
 behind the bars. You may go to two-thirds of all 
 the insane hospitals, where the poor souls go with 
 reason dethroned, and you may write over two- 
 thirds of them just those four words: "One thing 
 thou lackest." Yonder where that poor mother 
 kneels this afternoon and no rest comes to her body 
 and no peace to her soul, there where she agonizes 
 over some of you young men, you may simply write 
 over her, as she bows there with broken heart, 
 praying for a prodigal son : "One thing thou 
 lackest." 
 
 In every sad place, in every broken heart, in every 
 place of sin, in all the cycle of the world, you may 
 write over it these four words, and it will tell you 
 the secret of the ruin and sorrow and the broken 
 heart. 
 
 There are three things I want to say about that 
 "One thing thou lackest." First is this: Lacking 
 that one thing, many a man has utterly gone to 
 ruin in this world. In the Spanish war, sitting one 
 day by the side of our tent in old Chickamaugua 
 Park, I noticed a young soldier climbing the moun- 
 tain side towards us. I wondered what he could 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 want. Despair was written on his face. Finally 
 he sat down on the hillside and bowed his head over 
 in his hands. I went down to him and stood by his 
 side and said: "Soldier, what is the trouble?" He 
 said : "I am a mean, miserable man, the most miser- 
 able of all this camp." He was nothing but a beard- 
 less boy. I said : "Tell me your trouble ; I would 
 like to help you." He said : "Day before yester- 
 day we got our first pay, $34.16 I drew. When I 
 left my home in Mississippi, my mother said she 
 could not spare me, that I was her only support. I 
 promised her I would send every cent I got back 
 to her." He said: "I took that money and came 
 down here to get a money order to send home. On 
 the way I met some soldiers, and one of them had 
 a whisky bottle, and I took a drink. I don't know 
 where I have been, but I have been gambling and 
 my money is all gone." I said to that young sol- 
 dier: "What can I do for you?" He said: "I 
 thought I would come up and ask some of you if 
 you wouldn't write a letter to my mother and tell 
 her about it." I said to him : "What shall I w-rite 
 your mother?" He said: "Write her that I was 
 robbed. Write her that it was stolen from me. In 
 God's name write her anything, but don't write her 
 that I have been drunk and gambled it away." As I 
 stood by him, I said to myself: "Is this young man 
 a gambler? Is he a drunkard? Does he hate his 
 mother? Is he deliberately wicked and cruel and 
 mean in his heart?" Just one trouble! When he 
 left home that young man was lacking in one thing 
 — and that was the power of Jesus Christ in his 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 life, and lacking that had brought him to that place 
 of sorrow and disgrace. 
 
 Hear me, young men! Some day, if the raging 
 torrent of sin sweeps you over and you lie on the 
 rocks yonder, bruised, bleeding and undone, re- 
 member what I said to you this afternoon. You 
 will go there just because you lack this one thing. 
 
 There is another thing I want to say about those 
 four words. Mark it close ! You may go and get 
 everything in all the world that you ever dreamed 
 of. Let your mind go out quick over all the things 
 you have ever thought you would like to do in the 
 world. Sum it up now — of all the victories that 
 you dreamed of winning, of the money you would 
 make, of the fame you would have, of the wisdom 
 that some day should be yours. Sum it all up, and 
 I give you my word that if you go and get it all 
 and leave out that "one thing," your life is going 
 to be a failure, and some day you will give that 
 testimony before you leave this old world. I knew 
 a man, that from boyhood was oft exhorted to live 
 the Christian life, but always put ofif the day of de- 
 cision. "I am going to, but there is no hurry," was 
 many times his answer. After fifty years he was 
 violently taken ill, almost the first time in his life. 
 The doctor quickly told him it was a sickness unto 
 death, that only two or three days at most were 
 left him, and that his business must be adjusted at 
 once. He said : "It is not business I want to ad- 
 just." He sent for an old minister, and for forty- 
 eight hours they tried in vain to bring him to trust 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 in Christ. He refused to believe God would accept 
 him, and the third morning, as the end approached, 
 he talked with sons, daughters, sons-in-law and 
 friends, and to each gave the same pleading: "Do 
 not make the mistake I have"; and with the old 
 pastor hurrying a prayer to God to save him at the 
 last moment, with some friends trying through tears 
 to sing, "Jesus, Lover of my Soul," he raised him- 
 self, and calling his oldest son, said: "Hold my 
 hand, boy, it is getting dark, I cannot see, it is a 
 failure," and dropped back on his pillow, and his 
 spirit winged its way to God. His dying words 
 were: "It is a failure." In what, money? No! he 
 had accumulated a goodly sum. Estimation of his 
 friends? A-o! highly honored among men. In his 
 home? A^o! one of the kindest of men. A failure 
 in this, that amid the busy activities ot his life he 
 had forgotten God, and when he lay down to die 
 he left as his parting message that sad confession — 
 "It is a failure." 
 
 My brother, go get gold until you can pile it 
 mountain high. Go get wisdom until you can vie 
 with Solomon. Go get glory until your brow can 
 bear no more; but leave God out of your life, and 
 some day you will go out of this world and say: 
 "It is all a failure." I care not what else a man 
 gets, if he leaves God out of his life there will be 
 a blank there that with his own words he will wish 
 he had not lived, and that with his own words he 
 will say that his life is a failure. 
 
 The other side — what is it? I have just said if 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 a man got everything in all the world he would like 
 to have, but left God out, his life would be a failure. 
 Now get the other side of it. 
 
 If you in this life meet defeat, if in this life at 
 every milestone you have to pause and write, "It 
 has been a defeat for me," if you will do what I 
 say, your life is going to be a triumph. After all, 
 there are only a few men who know what the larg- 
 est blessings of this world are. Most men to whom 
 I speak to-day are men that live a hard struggle; 
 most men to whom I speak to-day are men that wiU 
 go through a hard battle ; most men to whom I speak 
 to-day are men that will live in poverty and die in 
 the struggle. This world showers its blessings in 
 largest measure on only a few. Most of us will never 
 be known outside of the county in which we live. 
 Hear me, my brother, and mark it well. If you 
 will give your heart to God and serve Jesus Christ 
 while you are here, when you go out of this life 
 it is going to be a victory! (Cries of "Amen! 
 Amen ! Amen !") It is going to be a victory as sure 
 as I look into your faces. 
 
 Pardon me if I use a personal illustration. Once 
 in twelve months I go out to my old farm home, 
 there where the scenes are so familiar that they 
 swing me back to childhood's days, and if there is a 
 sadness about going there it is this : somehow the 
 sadness of the struggle of the life of my father 
 and mother. My father is now a man whose hair 
 is white — an old man, coming to the close of life. 
 At times he has prospered, only in old age to have 
 the uncertain wheels of commercial life swing 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 against him, and he closes life soon with nothing of 
 this world to call his own. A few years ago when I 
 went to visit them, I went with the express purpose 
 of taking them away from that old farm. I felt as 
 though the time had come for them to leave it. I 
 stayed those da}s until on the Sunday night before 
 I was to leave the next morning. I waited until 
 all were in bed and we were alone. We sat in that 
 old dining-room that is just as familiar, every crack 
 and corner of it, as the faces of those I love best. 
 Over on one side of the table sat my mother, with 
 the old leather covered Bible in her lap. Every page 
 of that old Bible is stained with tears of that dear 
 old saint. On the other side sat my father. I said : 
 "Father and mother, I have come out here now to 
 ask you to leave the old farm and come away from 
 it. It has been only a scene of hardship." Mother 
 said: "No! I guess we had better stay here." She 
 said: "If any of the children or grandchildren are 
 ever sick, here is a place you can come." I said : 
 "Mother, you must be so very lonely here, now, and 
 the old farm has just been a scene of hard work. 
 You had better leave it." 
 
 Young men, when I am looking for the last time 
 into the face of that dear old mother, I want to re- 
 member her as I saw her on that night. I am pray- 
 ing God to keep her memory fresh with me as I 
 saw her then. She leaned across the table and 
 pushed her glasses up on her forehead, and said: 
 "We do get lonely here sometimes, but it is only 
 for the children." Then, said she, as she held out 
 the Bible and looked me in the face, "Boy, we will 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 never be so very lonely while we have this old 
 Bible," and she clasped it to her bosom and rocked 
 to and fro. 
 
 I went outside and stood alone, and as I stood 
 there that night, I said: "I can well go away and 
 leave these dear old saints here in the keeping of 
 Cod." 
 
 Catch my illustration ? That is all the world they 
 have. The money is all gone. They have never 
 had any glory in this world. But I will tell you 
 what they have got : They have a record of years 
 of loyalty to the Church of Jesus Christ. (Cries 
 of "Amen ! Amen !") And so far as I know they are 
 the richest people I ever knew in all the world. 
 They are going out of life soon, and that is all they 
 have, but when they go, I want jou to know that 
 that is going to be a place where we will stand 
 around and we will shed some tears, sure ; but we 
 will stand around that grave, and if God gives me 
 grace, I am going to shout: "Hallelujah! This is 
 Victory!" (Cries of "Amen! Bless the Lord!") 
 
 Listen to me 1 Most of your life is going to be 
 defeat. You might as well face it now. Most of 
 the things you expect to do you will never accom- 
 plish. If you truly and loyally give your heart to 
 God and serve Jesus Christ, stranger though I am 
 to you, I will give my word that some day you will 
 go out of this life, shouting: "Victory! Glory to 
 God !" 
 
 There is a question I want to ask, and then I am 
 done. Up yonder in Dakota it was asked of me, 
 before I was a Christian. I was riding on a rail- 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 way train with three men. As the train whirled 
 along, we had two seats turned together, and our 
 conversation was not such as becomes Christian 
 men. The train stopped at a little station, and as 
 the passengers were going out there came past me 
 an old minister. I didn't know he was in the car, 
 for if I had known he was there my conduct would 
 have been different — I never saw the day but that 
 I respected the ministry. He leaned over and looked 
 at me. I don't know who that old man was ; I don't 
 know his name; I don't know his home; but that 
 strange old minister stopped at the car seat beside 
 me and said : "Young man, will you answer me a 
 question?" I said; "Certainly, sir," and blushed as 
 I saw I was in his presence. He said : "Young 
 man, why don't you live like you want to die?" He 
 didn't wait for answer, but walked out of the car. 
 We rode on in silence to the station where I was to 
 get off. I went to the hotel and into my room, 
 locked the door, and then back and forth I paced, 
 as I said to myself: "Yes, why don't I live like I 
 will want to die? Why don't I live like I will want 
 to die?'' I never got that question out of my ears. 
 I want to give it to you to-day. 
 
 Young man, there is going to come a day in your 
 life when you will pray! Yes, you will! I 
 care not who you are, though your heart be as hard 
 as a rock. You may be able to listen to the Gospel 
 to-day and it never touch a tender place in your life. 
 You may have rejected Jesus Christ until it has be- 
 come a common thing to you. But hear me ! 
 Every man in this audience will pray some day ! 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 It may be too late ; but you are going to pray ! 
 And the agony of your soul will go out in that last 
 prayer you offer. I know you ! You feel strong, 
 don't you ? You can stand up in the power 
 of your physical strength and can curse and damn 
 and swear and drink whisky and gamble. But you 
 will pray ! Yes, you will. You will pray, and some 
 day we will find you on }Our face cr}'ing for mercy ! 
 You will cry : "Oh, God, be merciful to me, a sin- 
 ner." One of the meanest and wickedest men I 
 ever knew was a man that lived in our village town. 
 He was a gambler, a blaspheming man. But the 
 day when he thought he was going to die he ran 
 out of the village and threw himself on the ground 
 and cried so a hundred people could hear him ! 
 
 You will pray ! Yes, you will. Some of you 
 men, hear me ! Before the snow flies over these 
 prairies again, some of you will send a hurried mes- 
 sage for one of these preachers to "Come quick! I 
 am dying." You will call a preacher to your side 
 to pray for }'0u, and you will want him to stand 
 over your grave and say a prayer there. 
 
 Prince Henry, that dauntless young man of the 
 early history of England, that young man that de- 
 fied God and God's people, when he was twenty- 
 seven years old, was told: "Prince, you are dying." 
 He said: "What? Dying?" "Yes," they said, "You 
 are dying." Do you remember his words? He 
 said : "Tie a rope around my body and drag me out 
 to an ash heap and let me say my prayers !" They 
 tied a rope around the body of Prince Henry, and 
 
 170 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 as they started to the ash heap the cord was broken 
 and the spirit of him went out to God before he got 
 to the ash heap to say his prayer ! 
 
 I want to read four actual prayers. Listen, while 
 I read you the prayer of Voltaire, that man that 
 damned God and defied God's people ; but hear him 
 when he died ! 
 
 "I am abandoned by God and man. I will give 
 you" (his physician) "half of what I am worth if 
 you will give me six months of life. Then I shall 
 go to hell and you will go with me. Oh, Christ ! 
 Oh, Christ Jesus !" That was the prayer of Vol- 
 taire as he went out. 
 
 Listen while Tom Paine prays : 
 
 "I would give worlds, if I had them, that the Age 
 of Reason had never been published. Oh, Lord 
 God, help me. Oh, God, what have I done to sufifer 
 so much ? Oh, there is no God. But if there should 
 be one, what will become of me ? Stay with me, for 
 God's sake, for I cannot bear to be left alone. Even 
 send a child to stay with me." 
 
 Oh, yes, Tom Paine prayed ! 
 
 Listen ! Listen ! "Earth is receding. Heaven is 
 opening. God is calling me. Let me go." And 
 Moody, the mighty man "fell on sleep." 
 
 Let me give you another one : 
 
 "Good-bye all. Good-bye. It is God's way. 
 Nearer, My God. to Thee." And President Mc- 
 Kinley went out to be with God. 
 
 I am a stranger here. I never was in this town 
 before. I never expect to be again. I look into 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 your faces only to-day and once only. My young 
 man friend, I part with you. May I ask you this 
 question .• 
 
 "Why not be a man and live like you want to 
 die?" 
 
 172 
 
CHAPTER FIFTEENTH. 
 
 AN OLD LOVE STORY. 
 
 The Rev. John H. Elliott has long been known 
 as a successful worker in the interests of men. For 
 years he was a secretary of sev- 
 eral of the most prominent 
 Young Men's Christian As- 
 sociations in the country. Then 
 he entered upon special evan- 
 gelistic work ; from this field he 
 was called to the assistant pas- 
 torate of the Central Presby- 
 terian Church, Rochester, N. 
 Y., and then to the pastorate of 
 the Thirty- fourth Street Re- 
 formed Church, New York 
 REV. JOHN H. ELLIOTT, city. After a most successful 
 ministry there, he has entered 
 once more upon his evangelistic labors for which he 
 is so well qualified. 
 
 The following sermon is characteristic of Dr. El- 
 liott, and is a clear proof of the fact that the plaui 
 telling of the story of the Gospel of Christ always 
 wins. This sermon has been used of God to lead 
 thousands to Christ. 
 
 John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that He 
 gave His only begotten son, that whosoever be- 
 lieveth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
 lasting life.'' 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 This is the old love story of the Gospel. Luther 
 called this text "The Little Bible," meaning by that, 
 I suppose, that it contained in brief the essence of 
 all Bible truth, and indeed this is true. God loved 
 and gave, we believe and receive. Many other 
 things must enter into this statement, but in its final 
 analysis this covers the entire body of revealed 
 truth. I presume this is the most familiar text 
 of Scripture to an average Christian audience, and 
 yet I do not know that I have ever heard a sermon 
 on the text, save in one instance. Perhaps this is 
 due to the very largeness of the text, for it seems 
 impossible to exhaust it. 
 
 It is said that the first time Mr. Moody visited 
 the old land he met an English evangelist in whon.i 
 he became greatly interested. He said to him : "If 
 you should ever visit America, come to Chicago, 
 and I shall be glad to see you." Several years after- 
 wards, when possibly the invitation had almost 
 slipped out of his mind, the evangelist came to Chi- 
 cago, arriving on a Saturday just as Mr. Moody was 
 preparing to go away to speak somewhere else on 
 the Lord's day. Mr. Moody said to his wife: "Please 
 take the evangelist over to the North Side tomor- 
 row morning and ask the one who is to speak to 
 hold over and give my English friend an opportun- 
 ity to preach, and if in the judgment of the brethren 
 it seems best, let him speak again in the evening." 
 When the time came for the evangelist to speak, he 
 stood up before the audience and announced as his 
 text,- John 3:16. His diminutive figure and his 
 quaint English dialect provoked a titter through the 
 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 audience, but as he began to unfold to them some- 
 thing of the Old Love Story of the Gospel, the con- 
 gregation speedily forgot the messenger in the mes- 
 sage. So great was the interest that without a 
 moment's hesitation it was arranged that he should 
 speak again in the evening, and at the hour an- 
 nounced the audience room was well filled. When 
 the preacher arose to announce his text, he said: 
 "I have been much in prayer during the day for a 
 text for this evening service, and I have been un- 
 able to settle on anything but the text of the morn- 
 ing, so, with your permission, I will begin just where 
 I left off with John 3 : 16." So deep and profound 
 was the impression made by the speaker as he pro- 
 ceeded to unfold another aspect of the truth of God's 
 love for a lost world, that at the close it was ar- 
 ranged that he should speak again on Monday even- 
 ing ; and it was during the progress of Monday even- 
 ing's service that Mr. Moody, having returned to 
 the city, came in and took his place in the audience, 
 just about in time to hear the evangelist announce 
 his text. With evident embarrassment he said : 
 "Dear friends, I feel that perhaps I owe you an 
 apology, but I have not been able to get away from 
 the text of yesterday, so with your permission we 
 will just go on with John 3 : 16." It is believed 
 that this message had much to do with opening Mr. 
 Moody's eyes to the love side of the Gospel, and 
 we know with what power he went up and down 
 the world proclaiming the same message. 
 
 At the close of the sermon, Mr. Moody sprang to 
 his feet and in his impulsive big-hearted fashion 
 
 175 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 said: "Friends, there will be preaching service in 
 this place every night this week, and the same man 
 will speak." Tuesday night came, and with evident 
 modesty and sincere embarrassment, the evangelist 
 announced that he had not been able to get through 
 with the text, and that he would therefore continue 
 with John 3:16 on Tuesday evening and from John 
 3:16 on Wednesday evening, and on Thursday 
 evening and Friday evening, and so on until he had 
 preached seven sermons consecutively from the same 
 text. 
 
 One can well understand how the true-hearted 
 preacher of the Gospel might go on all his days 
 preaching from this text and never exhaust it. I 
 have no hope of doing other than calling attention 
 to some of the mountain peaks of truth, that stand 
 out distinctly above all others in the text. On one 
 memorable visit to the Pacific coast, I was privi- 
 leged successively to look upon the four great moun- 
 tain peaks of Mt. Shasta, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams 
 and Mt. Rainier. And so I lift your eyes to the four 
 great mountain peaks of truth in the text in the 
 hope that the impression may be as lasting as the 
 granite hills. 
 
 First then, I invite you to look upon the Love 
 of God ; second, the gift of God ; third, the invita- 
 tion of God ; and fourth, the promise of God. 
 
 FIRST. The Love of God. "For God so loved 
 the zvorld," "Love divine all love excelling, Joy of 
 Heaven to Earth come down." There is infinite 
 pathos in these four short words "For God so loved." 
 Doctor Torrey has called attention to the statement 
 176 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 "God is Love," as containing the greatest sentence 
 that was ever written. This is the crowning revela- 
 tion of Scripture. One does not find this revelation 
 in the book of nature; indeed, the laws of nature 
 seem oftentimes to contradict it. If you break one 
 of the laws of nature you must pay the penalty with 
 compound interest added. Nature knows no such 
 thing as pity, or love, or forgiveness for the one 
 who sins against her; but Scripture reveals a new 
 law, the law of Love, and because God so loved 
 the world, He stands ready to forgive the sinner, 
 for God loves the sinner, while He hates the sin. 
 I believe this is the message that the old sin-cursed, 
 habit-bound world needs to-day as much as it ever 
 did. 
 
 I have read somewhere of a mother who loved 
 her boy as true mothers have since the world be- 
 gan ; mischievous and wayward, he went into sin, 
 deeper and deeper, until even his so-called friends 
 had forsaken him ; but the mother could always find 
 some palliation for his wrong doing or some excuse 
 for his sin, because while she hated the sin with an 
 intense hatred, she loved the sinner. In the end 
 this young fellow went so far as to commit a crime, 
 and then to expiate his crime by the death upon the 
 gallows. His mother was the last one to turn away 
 from him, the last one to leave him. Others had 
 forsaken him in disgust long ago. She, — never. 
 And it is said that when at last the time came 
 for her to lay her own poor, tired, broken body 
 down, her dying request Vv'as that she might be 
 buried in the same grave with her boy. Think of 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 it, willing to go down into a grave of infamy and 
 shame for the love she bore her boy, and all this 
 because she loved the sinner, while she hated the 
 sin. Even so God loves the sinner, while He hates 
 the sin. 
 
 SECOND: The Gift of God. "For God so loved 
 the world that he gave his only begotten son." God 
 loved the world and gave his son. Jesus Christ, the 
 Son of God, loved the world and gave Himself for 
 it. Jesus seems everywhere and always to have 
 recognized Himself as the gift of God. In His in- 
 terview with the sinful woman at the well, you will 
 remember that He said to her: "If thou knewest 
 the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give 
 me to drink ; thou wouldst have asked of him, and 
 he would have given thee living water." And so 
 over and over again, this truth is emphasized in 
 Scripture. One does not need to prove to the world 
 that "the wages of sin is death," but the world does 
 need to know that "the gift of God is eternal life, 
 through Jesus Christ, our Lord." For despite the 
 teaching of the Master to the contrary, men still 
 cling to the hope of doing something to merit His 
 favor instead of accepting the gift, as offered in 
 pure grace. Some time since, in conversation with 
 a man, when I inquired if he was a Christian, he 
 said to me at once : "Well, sir, / am doing the best 
 I can." Then it occurred to me that this man had 
 never analyzed that statement, and that like a great 
 many others who are saying "/ am doing the best I 
 can" it had been repeated so often that he had come 
 to believe in it, although there might be no basis 
 178 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 for it in fact, and therefore seeking to help him, I 
 pressed the inquiry a Httle, and asked him what he 
 was doing. His reply again was : "I am doing the 
 best I can." "But," I asked, "What are you doing? 
 What are you working at?" "Well," said he, "I 
 think one ought to go to church." I replied : "Yes, 
 the church-going habit is a good one ; I do not think 
 I have ever known one being harmed by it. But," 
 I asked, "Do you go regularly every Sunday?" "Oh, 
 no ; not every Sunday." "Do you go on an average 
 once every Sunday?" "No," he said, "I don't think 
 I could say that." "Well, do you average once every 
 other Sunday?" I asked. And he replied; "Well, 
 I am afraid not; I am afraid it would hurry me a 
 good deal." So I said: "Then you are not much 
 of a church-goer ?" "No," he replied, "I don't think 
 I am much in the church-going line." "Then you 
 are not doing the best you can in that way, are 
 you?" And he admitted that he was not. "But," 
 I added, "Suppose you went to church every time 
 the church was open regularly, year in and year out, 
 and never found the Christ that the church every- 
 where points to, for," I added, "it is a significant 
 fact that every church under the sun, worthy the 
 name, unites in pointing to Christ, no matter what 
 the denomination may be. Now," I said, "do you 
 think mere church-going could ever save anybody ?" 
 And he replied, "No, I don't think so." "Very well," 
 I said, "now what else are you doing?" "Well, I 
 am doing the best I can." "But," I said, "in what 
 line? What are doing?" He replied, "Well, I 
 think a man ought to read and study the Bible." 
 179 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 And I said, "So do I; are you a Bible student?" 
 He admitted frankly that he was not, and then I 
 added : "Do you read the Bible regularly ?" And he 
 replied, "I fear I do not." "Have you read the Old 
 Testament through?" "No." "Have you read the 
 New Testament through?" "No." "Have you 
 read a single book of the Bible through?" Instantly 
 he answered : "Yes, I think I have ; as much as 
 would make one book at least." "Which one?" I 
 asked, and I feared he would say Jude, since Jude 
 has only one chapter, and that is one of the shortest 
 in the Bible, but he said he had read one of the 
 Gospels, and so I asked, "Which one?" for since 
 there are four and each one presents a different 
 aspect of the truth, I could not talk intelligently 
 about it without knowing which one; but I found 
 he could not tell, and so it was on his own con- 
 fession he knew little or nothing about the Bible. 
 "But," I said, "suppose you hdve read the Bible 
 through consecutivel}-, several times during the year, 
 which is quite possible, and }et had never found the 
 Christ that every book and indeed every chapter of 
 the Bible points to, could mere Bible reading save 
 your soul?" And he said, no, he did not think it 
 could, and yet he insisted he was doing the best 
 he could; but everything he spoke of resulted in 
 the same way. He was practically doing nothing 
 at it. Our conversation was kindly and friendly 
 throughout, and at last I said to the man: "Do you 
 really want to know how you can do the best you 
 can?" And by that time he was thoroughly inter- 
 ested, and he replied: "I do." "Very well," I 
 1 80 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 said, "I will make a simple logical statement, which, 
 I think, you can follow easily. First, God did the 
 best He could when He gave His Son, did he not ?" 
 And he replied : "Yes, I agree to that." "Jesus 
 Christ did the best He could when He gave Himself 
 to die on Calvary, did He not?" And he said: "Yes, 
 I agree to that also. "Very well, then," I added, 
 "you will do the best you can when you take the 
 gift and thank God for it. It is the taking of the 
 gift that transforms the life." 
 
 Speaking once, in Montreal, to a great audi- 
 ence of men, I pressed this point, and, at the 
 close, a young Englishman pushed liis way up 
 through the audience, and, clasping my hand, 
 said: "I want to thank you, sir, for pressing 
 the matter upon my attention to-day, for I have 
 taken the gift." He was a splendid specimen of 
 healthy, hearty, athletic young Englishman. He 
 continued: "I have one of the best fathers and 
 mothers that God ever gave to any boy, but I have 
 been wild and reckless, have been to Australia and 
 California, but am now on my way back to Eng- 
 land, and I thank God that to-day / have taken the 
 gift." Someone spoke to me and I turned away, and 
 when I turned back he was gone. I never expected 
 to hear of him again, but a couple of years ago, when 
 I was speaking on the Surrey side of the Thames, in 
 London, at the close of the service a fine looking 
 English woman pressed her way to the platform 
 and waited to speak to me. I hurried to her side, 
 thinking she desired to talk to me about her soul's 
 salvation. As quickly as I could, I asked : "Is 
 i8i 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 
 
 there anything I can do for you ; can I help you in 
 any way?" She replied: "I fear, sir, that I can 
 scarcely control my feelings sufficiently to speak to 
 you, but when you were telling of the young Eng- 
 lishman who took the gift in America, I felt that 
 I must tell you that // zvas my son, and I also want 
 to assure you that the taking of the gift has trans- 
 formed his life." 
 
 THIRD : The; Invitation of God. "That ivho- 
 soever helieveth in him." For once at least here is 
 an invitation that includes every one, for as the lit- 
 tle boy said, when asked to define the word "Who- 
 soever," "It means you or me or anybody else," And 
 one could scarcely have a more illuminating defini- 
 tion of the word than this, and yet how strange it 
 is that many people miss the benefits and blessing 
 which God has provided for them in Christ because 
 they cannot quite understand that it is a personal 
 matter. There is a quaint printer in the lower part 
 of New York City who, years ago, in his leisure 
 moments, set up and printed a New Testament for 
 himself, so whenever he came to an invitation or 
 promise that had in it the idea of the word who- 
 soever as meaning for anyone, he put in his own 
 name. I do not quite recall the man's name, but we 
 will say it was John Smith. Our text would there- 
 fore read: "For God so loved John Smith, that 
 He gave His only begotten Son that John Smith 
 believing in Him, should not perish but have ever- 
 lasting life." And so he made the matter personal ; 
 but if he had lost this testament and I, seeking the 
 
 182 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Savior, had found it, I could not have claimed the 
 promise as mine, for my name is not John Smith ; 
 but in God's word the invitation includes everyone, 
 so there can be no mistake, tlovv the preacher longs 
 sometimes to be able to make his message as definite 
 and personal as this ! 
 
 I have been told that a man speaking in one 
 of the services for sailors on the east side in 
 New York found difficulty in making them un- 
 derstand this, and so hit upon a very forcible 
 illustration to the sailors: He said something 
 like this : "Now, lads, look out, I am going to throw 
 out a rope to you just as I would if you were sink- 
 ing for the last time (and it may be that some of 
 you are going down under the billows of sin that 
 are threatening to engulf you)." Then in imagina- 
 tion he began to coil a rope and swing it about his 
 head as the sailors do, and every sailor craned his 
 neck to see if the man had ever been on the sea 
 (for these seafaring men could tell at once by the 
 way he handled the rope). Presently, in imagina- 
 tion, he threw the ropes to different parts of the 
 room, and as he did so, he said." "Whosoever will 
 may receive salvation through Jesus Christ our 
 Savior." One who was present said that it was so 
 real that some of the sailors ducked their heads as, 
 in imagination, they felt the noose settle down over 
 their shoulders. Would that men and women hear- 
 ing the Gospel might feel that it was for them as 
 if there were no one else in the world interested. 
 
 Have you ever put in your name, friend ? There 
 
 183 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 is not a single benefit or blessing in the Gospel that 
 is not for you as much as anyone else in all the 
 world. 
 
 FOURTH : The Promise of God. "That zvho- 
 soever believeth in him should not perish but have 
 everlasting life." What does it mean to perish ? This 
 is an ominous word, and it must be remembered 
 that it is our Lord's own description of those who 
 reject the Gospel. Did He not say in this same 
 discourse to Nicodemus : "For God sent not his 
 son into the world to condemn the world, but that 
 the world through him might be saved. He that 
 believeth on him is not condemned, but he that be- 
 lieveth not is condemned already because he hath 
 not believed on the only begotten Son of God, and 
 this is the condemnation that light is come into the 
 world and men love darkness rather than light, be- 
 cause their deeds are evil." 
 
 To perish from the presence of God must mean 
 something dreadful beyond expression, since Jesus 
 in his public teaching seems to have been almost at 
 a loss for words or figures to express the depths 
 of his meaning, but the comforting and encouraging 
 thought in the text is God's promise to those who 
 personally accept His son, and therefore the prom- 
 ise of the text stands between the soul and perishing. 
 
 A man riding across the prairies of Minnesota 
 was suddenly overtaken by a fearful blizzard, and 
 in the gathering storm and darkness lost his way. 
 Both man and beast seemed utterly enveloped by 
 the fierce storm. After a little that strange numb- 
 ness began to creep over his limbs, and he gave him- 
 184 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 self up for lost, then the horse stumbled over some 
 growth on the prairie and the rider falling, recovered 
 consciousness and a sense of his peril. Discovering 
 a growth of shrubs on the prairie, the thought at 
 once occurred to him that he might gather dry 
 leaves and twigs sufficient to build a fire and so 
 save himself until the storm was over-past. Hastily 
 he went to work, the poor beast, by instinct, seek- 
 ing to shield him. When sufficient fuel had been 
 gathered he sought for a match with which to start 
 the fire, and looking through every pocket in his 
 clothing he found a match, just one match between 
 him and perishing. Never before did a match seem 
 so precious a thing to him. What if it should go 
 out when he struck it? Then, indeed, he must 
 perish. But at last he took courage, and shielding 
 it from the blast by his clothing, he struck the match, 
 the blue flame sprang up and then died away, and 
 as he said, it seemed as though his heart came into 
 his mouth. What if it should go out? But, pres- 
 ently the brighter flame followed, and he was saved 
 to tell the story. 
 
 How blessed a thing it is, that one does not have 
 to rest upon such a flimsy and uncertain a thing as 
 a match but upon the sure promise of God in the 
 matter of his salvation. 
 
 I doubt if any single text of Scripture has been 
 used of God in leading so many to trust in Christ 
 as their personal Savior, as John 3:16, and I do 
 not know of any surer or safer promise than this 
 upon which to rest for eternity. The story is told 
 of a little boy standing by the lamp-post of one of 
 
 185 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 the streets of Dublin, when a gentleman laid his 
 hand kindly on his shoulder, and said: "My lad, 
 you ought not to be here at this time of night ; you 
 ought to be at home." The little fellow replied 
 sadly : "That's true, sir, but I have no home to go 
 to.'' In kindness of heart, the gentleman said: "If 
 you had a home to go to, would you be glad to 
 go to it? If so and you will go to a certain street 
 and number you will find just such a home." The 
 little fellow evidenced his faith by starting off at 
 once in the direction indicated, when he was called 
 back, and the man said : "Can you read and write?" 
 The little lad replied, "No, sir." "Well," said the 
 man, "you will need a password to get into the 
 home, and the password is John three sixteen." 
 The little fellow went ofif at once, and, com- 
 ing to the number, rang the bell. Presently he 
 heard the sturdy tread of the porter as he came 
 down the long dark passageway swinging his 
 lantern, and soon a gruff voice said: "Who is 
 there?" The little fellow replied: "Please, sir, it's 
 JoJin three sixteen." And into the home he 
 went. They treated him kindly, gave him a 
 warm meal and a nice clean bed, such as his poor, 
 tired body had probably never rested in before. In 
 the morning they treated him kindly and sent him 
 out to sell his papers during the day. Perhaps be- 
 cause of his joy in his new found home or occu- 
 l)ie(l with the thought of it, in a careless moment, 
 he was run over by a carriage, picked up for dead 
 and sent to the hospital in an ambulance. When he 
 reached the receiving room, he had recovered suf- 
 i86 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 ficicntly to answer in a weak way the questions 
 the kindly surgeon put to him. W'hen asked his 
 name, he hesitated a moment and answ'ered, "Yes- 
 terday it was so and so" — giving- an Irish name — 
 "but to-day it is John Three Sixteen," and so it went 
 down on the hospital register, Name, John Three 
 Sixteen; nationality, Irish; etc., and then he went 
 into the ward. After a little the delirium came on 
 and the boy began to cry out in a loud shrill voice, 
 "John Three Surteen^hnt it did me good;John Three 
 Sixteen, but it did no good." Some of the convales- 
 cents were interested, and one said to another, what 
 does the child mean? "Why." said one, "that is in the 
 Testament, let us look it up." And so finding a 
 New Testament, they turned to the words of the 
 text : "For God so loved the world that he gave 
 his only begotten son." etc., and at last one of the 
 company was led to receive Christ through the read- 
 ing of the text. In the course of time the boy was 
 convalescent and this man came to him one morning 
 and said: "Well, little John Three Sixteen, and 
 how are you this morning?" "Why do you call me 
 that, sir?" said the lad. "Because you called your- 
 self that w'hen you first came in, and I for one thank 
 God for John Three Sixteen." And then the man 
 told him all the story. Presently the little face 
 lighted up, and the boy said : "Oh, I understand, 
 sir, now, you mean that it is not only the password 
 into the home down here, but into the home up there 
 also." He was assured that this was exactly the 
 truth, and so the boy himself entered into the joy 
 of it. 
 
 187 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 Some clays afterwards, when he was able to get 
 up and about, he heard a man groaning on a cot 
 over in one corner of the ward, and going over to 
 him, his warm Irish heart touched into sympathy for 
 the suffering, he said : "Patrick, what is the trouble 
 this morning?" "Sure, trouble enough. I am going 
 to die, and T am so afraid. The priest has been 
 here and anointed me for my burial, and the sisters 
 came and put these beads about my neck and left 
 me with their blessing. They have all been so kind, 
 but oh, it is so dark and I am afraid to die." "Oh, 
 Patrick, I know what you need," said the boy, "you 
 need the password." And giving him John 3 : 16 
 as the password into the home above, the poor, 
 ignorant, illiterate, dying Irishman grasped the pass- 
 word by faith and went out to meet his God. Could 
 he have had a better promise to rest upon ? Friends, 
 have you the password? 
 
 188 
 
CHAPTER SIXTEENTH. 
 
 LIFE OR DEATH. 
 
 This sermon was preached by the Rev. Frederick 
 E. Taylor, pastor of the Central Baptist Church of 
 Brooklyn. It has pleased God 
 to use it in a remarkable way, 
 and to those who know Mr. 
 Taylor, this is not at all strange, 
 for very few men are more 
 thoroughly consecrated and few 
 that I have known have more 
 )f a passion for reaching men 
 with the Gospel than he. 
 
 Mr. Taylor was in such great 
 demand for the holding of 
 evangelistic services in the in- 
 terest of men, that at last on 
 the advice of his brother min- 
 isters he resigned his church, and is now devoting 
 his time to the general evangelistic work, in every 
 city preaching special sermons to men with re- 
 markable success. 
 
 "I call Heaven and earth to record this day 
 against you, that I have set before you life and death, 
 blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both 
 thou and thy seed may live." (Deuteronomy 30: 19.) 
 The last words of our friends are always the most 
 effective. The boy who has been disobedient to all 
 189 
 
 REV. FREDERICK E. 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 authority of mother or father, Hstens attentively to 
 the words of counsel, advice, or request as they fall 
 from the lips of the dying parent and resolves that 
 now he will obey, no matter what the cost of obedi- 
 ence may be. 
 
 These are the last words of one of the greatest 
 men the world has ever known. Moses was a great 
 man. He was great as a statesman and as a law- 
 giver. So great, indeed, that, after four thousand 
 years, we find the jurisprudence of the world based 
 upon his words. He was not only great as a states- 
 man and lawgiver, but he was a wonderful leader 
 of men. Men like Alexander, Napoleon, and Grant, 
 have marshalled mighty armies, but Moses mar- 
 shalled and controlled for forty years an army of 
 men, women and children numbering millions, and 
 so completely was he master of the situation that 
 in all those years there was never any need for a 
 change of commanders. 
 
 And now he is about to give up the command. 
 He has received word from the Lord that he is 
 to come home to heaven and receive his reward. 
 As the evening shadows gather about his life, he 
 rehearses before the people the story of God's deal- 
 ings with them. He tells them the story of their 
 deliverance from Egypt, he sets before them their 
 unbelief and their failure to respond to the will of 
 Jehovah. He reminds them that whenever they have 
 obeyed God He has blessed them ; and whenever 
 they have disobeyed He has punished them. "Now," 
 he says, "I am about to leave you, another is to take 
 my place, and he will guide you into the promised 
 190 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 land." Then mentioning six blessings, he says: 
 "If ye obey God, these will be yours, but if ye 
 disobey, these six curses shall come upon you," and 
 he mentions these. And then, with great solemnity, 
 he urges upon them the duty of choosing that which 
 will bring the blessing of God. "I call Heaven and 
 earth to record this day against you, that I have 
 set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: 
 therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed 
 may live." 
 
 It is a solemn moment in the life of any man when 
 he stands facing the question of life and death. It 
 is a solemn moment for men here today, because 
 whatever else shall be the outcome of this meeting 
 I intend to set before you life and death, the bless- 
 ing and the cursing; so that if in the days to come 
 we shall face each other at the judgment seat of 
 Christ I shall be able to say that on one occasion 
 at least you came face to face with the claims of 
 God upon your life. I want to be able in that day 
 to say that, in no unmistakable terms, I set before 
 you the reasons why you should choose life instead 
 of death, the blessing instead of the curse. And 
 when I urge you to choose life, let me say that by 
 choosing life I mean that you should choose Jesus 
 Christ as your Savior and Lord. To choose life 
 is to choose Christ, and to choose Christ is to find 
 life. He is the Way and the Truth and the Life, 
 and until men know Him they do not know the 
 meaning of the world life. "I am come," said He, 
 "that they might have life and that they might have 
 it more abundantly." There are hundreds of reasons 
 191 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 why a man should choose Hfc, but out of them all 
 I want to suggest just four, any one of which, as 
 it seems to me, ought to be enough to lead a man to 
 God. 
 
 I. 
 
 Every man ought to choose Christ because all men 
 need Christ. 
 
 In every meeting like this there are men, who, 
 stirred by the influence of the service, go out firmly 
 resolving to live a different life. They agree with 
 the speaker, they believe the story of the Gospel, and 
 they have a desire for a better life. And certainly 
 no one should find fault with a man who desires a 
 better life. But suppose some man goes out to-day 
 and, like many others, he decides that hereafter 
 he will live a clean life. Suppose for the moment 
 that this man lives to be fifty years older than he is 
 today, and in all that time he never commits another 
 sin. This is an impossible thing, of course, but for 
 the moment let us suppose such a case. Now would 
 that man be saved? Would he, because of these 
 years of righteousness, be entitled to an entrance 
 into heavenly world ? No ! But, you say, why not ? 
 For fifty years of clean living is not a man entitled 
 to heaven ? And, again, I answer. No. In the first 
 place, because no man will ever be saved because 
 of what he has done but for that which Christ has 
 done for him ; and in the second place he cannot 
 be saved for the reason that he has not been cleansed 
 from the sins already committed. The sins of all 
 
 192 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 the years up to this time arc still with him. Day 
 after day and year after }ear he has been piling them 
 ujj until they are mountainous, and nothing that he 
 can do will ever atone for them. The sins of thought 
 and deed, as well as the sin of rebellion to God's 
 will, have never been purged from his life, and until 
 the blood of Jesus Christ rolls over his soul he will 
 not be entitled to an entrance into the heavenly 
 world. If by act of righteousness, if by any amount 
 of pure living we can be saved, then Calvary is a 
 farce and the Christ was crucified in vain. No, the 
 Scriptures are right, ''All have sinned and come 
 short of the glory of God," "Without shedding of 
 blood there is no remission," and the young man 
 should choose Christ that he may be cleansed from 
 sin. Not only does he need Christ to get rid of the 
 sin already in his life but to keep him from the, pos- 
 sibility of failure after he has been cleansed. Many 
 a man is afraid to stand up and acknowledge Christ 
 as his Savior because he fears that he will sin 
 again within twenty-four hours and bring reproach 
 upon his Lord. But Christ not only saves us but 
 keeps us, and those who put their trust in fiini are 
 kept by the power of God through faith unto salva- 
 tion. 
 
 But there is another reason why you need Jesus 
 Christ, and that is because you can never fulfill the 
 purpose for which you were created imtil you have 
 Him in your life. 
 
 No man is ever a man until he is a Christian man. 
 When God made man He made him foursquare. He 
 gave him a physical side to his nature and an intel- 
 M 193 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 lectual and social side of his nature; but He did not 
 stop there, for He crowned the whole man with 
 spiritual life and this was meant to dominate the 
 whole man. There are many three-sided men in 
 the world to-day. They look all right in the eyes of 
 men, but in the eyes of the Lord they are sadlv 
 deficient. A man may develop his body until he 
 has the strength of a Sandow, he may cultivate the 
 social side of his life until he becomes a veritable 
 Beau Brummel ; and he may educate his mind until 
 he becomes a genuis ; but if he has only these, he is 
 a failure and of all men most miserable. Not until 
 he has been touched by the Spirit of God and has 
 flowing through his life the life of Christ does he 
 become a complete man. 
 
 Some years ago, in a little town in the West, a 
 crowd of men were gathered about a store window. 
 A large American eagle was in the window. Fast- 
 ened to one of its feet was a chain, and this was 
 secured to ring in the floor of the window. The 
 bird was absolutely indififerent to its condition. It 
 was a splendid picture of fallen greatness. While 
 the men were looking at the bird, a tall young moun- 
 taineer elbowed his way through the crowd, and, 
 after looking for a moment, walked into the store 
 and asked the proprietor how much he wanted for 
 the bird. The man said two dollars. The young 
 man took some money out of his pocket and paid 
 for the bird and the storekeeper unfastened the chain 
 and handed the eagle to him. He carried the great 
 bird down the street, followed by the crowd. Com- 
 ing to a large billboard fence with a ladder against 
 194 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 it, he climbed the ladder and placed the eagle upon 
 the top of the fence. Unfastening the chain he came 
 down. The bird remained motionless for a moment, 
 then noting that he seemed to have more freedom 
 than usual, he opened his eyes and glanced around. 
 Then, as if to be sure of his power, he stretched 
 out one great wing and then another, and then with 
 a hoarse scream he soared up toward the sun, while 
 the crowd sent up a cheer. "I used to see that bird 
 away up on the mountain where I tended sheep," 
 said the young man, "and when I saw him chained 
 down in that store window I could not stand it. 
 He belongs up above and was never meant to be 
 in such a place." 
 
 And, friends, God intended that men should live 
 in fellowship with Him, and when He saw us down 
 here chained by sin, unable to realize the purpose 
 for which we were created. He sent Jesus Christ 
 to free us and the cross of Calvary is the price of 
 our freedom. And if we will but accept Him we 
 may live above the clouds of this world in fellow- 
 ship with God. 
 
 The second reason why you should choose 
 Christ is : 
 
 n. 
 
 Because it is a manly thing to do. 
 
 I have said that a man is never a man until he 
 is a Christian man, and I want to emphasize this. 
 There was a day when, if a }oung man became a 
 Christian, he was thought to be a milk and water 
 
 195 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 sort of a fellow who had none of the elements of 
 manhood. But that day has gone forever. Men 
 are beginning to realize that it takes all there is of 
 a man to be a Christian. The manliest men this 
 country has produced have been Christian men, and 
 the man who thinks that a man loses any of his man- 
 liness by surrendering his life to Jesus Christ has 
 a great deal to learn about real manhood. There 
 came a time in the life of James A. Garfield when, 
 at the top of Mt. Holyoke, with some fellow stud- 
 ents, they decided to camp there all night. When 
 the hour for retiring came, young Garfield took a 
 New Testament out of his pocket and said : "Fel- 
 lows, I always read a chapter out of this book and 
 ofifer prayer before I go to bed, and with your per- 
 mission I will read aloud and offer prayer." Was 
 he any the less of a man for that action? When 
 Abraham Lincoln went to Henry Ward Beecher one 
 night during the civil war and spent the night on 
 his knees with Mr. Beecher, asking God to save the 
 country, did he lose any of his manhood? When 
 Wm. E. Gladstone sat down by the side of a sick 
 crossing sweeper in one of the lowest hovels in 
 London and read the Scriptures and prayed with 
 him, was he any the less of a man ? I do not need 
 to press the question, every man here knows that 
 these men were manly men and their relation to God 
 only puts them upon a higher plane in our estima- 
 tion. The fact of the matter is that the more man- 
 hood a man possesses the more likely he is to be a 
 Christian man. I have had many excuses offered me 
 by young men for not becoming followers of Christ, 
 196 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 but I have never had but one man give what I 
 should call a reason. 
 
 I was conducting a series of meetings in a well 
 known university some years ago, and when the last 
 night of the meetings came the hall was filled to 
 overflowing. A number of the students had come 
 out for Christ during the meetings, but there was 
 still a number who were holding back. One of the 
 men who attended the last meeting was a prominent 
 football man, and in fact one of the leading men in 
 the college. At the close of the service, his chum, 
 who sat beside him, stood up and publicly accepted 
 Christ, together with a number of others. After 
 the meeting was over, I met this football man and 
 some others in a class room. All of the men in the 
 room came out for Christ but this one. When I 
 came to him I saw that he was as white as marble. 
 He was trembling from head to foot, and 1 knew 
 that he was having a great struggle. Taking him 
 by the hand I said to him : "Will you take Jesus 
 Christ as your Savior and follow him?" He hesi- 
 tated a moment, and then he said: "I'm not man 
 enough." And he told the truth. It takes all there 
 is of a man to be a Christian, and if some of those 
 who are here this afternoon should tell the real 
 truth they would have to say : "The only reason 
 why I am not a Christian is because I am not man 
 enough." 
 
 Another reason why every man should choose 
 Christ is found in the fact that 
 
 197 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 III. 
 
 The service of Christ affords an opportunity for 
 real heroism. 
 
 We admire the courage of the man who, when the 
 call comes for volunteers, leaves his home and goes 
 forth to face the bullets of the enemy of his coun- 
 try. And we should admire this courage. But let 
 us not forget that moral courage is far superior to 
 physical courage. Many a man who can face bul- 
 lets without flinching will fall before a glass of beer. 
 Men who will risk their lives for the sake of others 
 sometimes have no courage at all in moral matters. 
 
 Here is a young man and he has just left his home. 
 He is sad faced and heavy hearted. The doctor has 
 just told him that unless the young wife whom he 
 adores can have a change of climate and some of 
 the luxuries which he has mentioned, she cannot get 
 well. He loves her with all his soul and would be 
 willing at any moment to lay down life itself for 
 her sake. But here is a condition which he cannot 
 help. His salary will not permit of following the 
 doctor's orders. He enters the office and opens the 
 safe and takes out the money for the day's business. 
 He is all alone in the office. While he is counting 
 the money there comes across his mind a suggestion 
 which causes the hot blood to rush to his temples. 
 Why not take some of this money? It will never 
 be missed. You have nothing to risk, for you can 
 put it back at your leisure. And then all the forces 
 of the infernal world begin their awful work. On 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 the one side is the wife whom he loves and the pos- 
 sibility of health and strength. On the other is the 
 fact that years ago he promised to follow Jesus 
 Christ. The battle rages for a few moments, when, 
 with a cry of agony, he flings himself upon his 
 knees. "O God, help me now !" And a moment 
 after he stands up and the victory is won. That 
 man is a hero! Napoleon in all of his marvelous 
 conquests never won a victory as great as that. Yes, 
 men, the man who lives an out and out life for 
 Christ will have battles, and many of them, and this 
 alone ought to appeal to young men, for what are 
 we here for if not to fight battles ? And what sort 
 of a man is that who wants an easy time of it in 
 this world ? Oh, for men, real, dead in earnest men. 
 Men who will consecrate their lives to the service of 
 Jesus Christ and then, to use the words of Mr. 
 Speer, "Live with a vengeance and die with a snap." 
 And now, last of all, and perhaps most important 
 of all, I urge you to choose Christ because 
 
 IV. 
 
 In so doing you obtain eternal life. 
 
 "There is none other name under heaven given 
 among men whereby we must be saved." You ought 
 to choose Christ because you need Him to cleanse 
 you from past sin, to keep you from present and 
 future sin, to enable you to fulfill the object of your 
 creation, because you are doing the manly thing 
 when you do this and you find an opportunity to 
 develop a heroic character; but if none of these rea- 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 sons move you, then let me urge you to choose 
 Christ for the sake of your eternal destiny. You 
 may not think you need Christ now, but the day 
 will come when you will need Him more than you 
 have ever needed anything in this world. 
 
 While traveling upon the Sound Steamers I used 
 to notice that each boat carried two splendid look- 
 ing anchors. They were very nice to look at, but 
 I could not see the reason for having them on board. 
 We used to tie up at the wharf in Fall River, and 
 when we came to New York I noticed that they 
 did the same thing here. And this led me to think 
 that these anchors were carried merely for ornament. 
 But one morning I was awakened by the blowing of 
 whistles and ringing of bells, and I went on deck 
 and found that we were in the midst of a dense fog. 
 So thick was it that we could hardly see from one 
 end of the vessel to the other. Just as I arrived on 
 deck I saw the sailors lowering one of the anchors. 
 It went down into the water with a splash, and the 
 vessel swung around and we were fast. After a 
 while the fog lifted and then I learned the value of 
 an anchor, for right ahead of us was one of the 
 other Sound Steamers and had we gone on our way 
 we must have crashed into her with dreadful results. 
 The anchor on that steamer saved our lives. And, 
 my friends, when the fogs begin to gather and the 
 things of this world fade from your view, the one 
 thing that will prove valuable will be your hope in 
 Jesus Christ. And if you do not possess this, noth- 
 ing but disaster and ruin await you. 
 
 I am acquainted with a man who is an engineer 
 200 
 
FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 on one of the railroads running out of New York 
 City. Some years ago this man, who is an earnest 
 Christian, was addressing a meeting of men, a large 
 number of whom were employees of the railroad. 
 As he closed his address, he said : "I cannot begin 
 to tell you what Jesus Christ is to me. He has given 
 me a hope that is very precious. Some years ago," 
 he said, "every night as I neared the end of my run, 
 I would look up to the top of a hill where stood a 
 little cottage; and as we rushed down through the 
 cut I would pull open the whistle and let out a blast, 
 and then an old lady would come to the door of the 
 cottage and wave her hand to me. And as we shot 
 into the tunnel she would go into the house and 
 say to her husband : 'Thank God, father, Bennie 
 is safe home to-night.' But the day came when we 
 carried mother out and laid her to rest. Then, night 
 after night, when I pulled the whistle, an old man 
 would come to the door and wave his hand to me 
 and I could almost hear him say, as he entered the 
 house: 'Thank God, Bennie is safe home to-night.' 
 But now," said the engineer, "they are both gone, 
 and although I look up many times, I do not see 
 either of the dear ones to welcome me home. But 
 some day when I have pulled the whistle for the 
 last time and the work of this world is over I shall 
 come to the pearly gates, and I am sure that as I 
 draw near I shall see an old lady waiting at the 
 entrance with an old gentleman ; and, as I enter I 
 shall see my dear old mother turn to father and say : 
 'Thank God, father, Bennie is safe home at last.' " 
 Oh, men, if for no other reason than for this, that 
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FISHING FOR MEN 
 
 it will mean the reunion of loved ones, the answer 
 to the prayers of those whom we have loved long 
 since and lost awhile, I urge you to choose Christ. 
 
 May God help you now to give free play to the 
 noblest impulses of your life. Choose, choose now, 
 and choose Christ. 
 
 "I call Heaven and earth to record this day against 
 you that I have set before you life and death, bless- 
 ing and cursing ; therefore choose life that both thou 
 and thy seed may live." 
 
 202 
 
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