Wondrous Love, and other Gospel addressesMoody, Dwight Lyman
Religion
Wondrous Love, and other Gospel addresses
Moody, Dwight Lyman
Sermons, American -- 19th century
Our Lord said, "Follow Me, Peter, and I will make you a fisher of
men"; and Peter simply obeyed Him, and there, on that day of
Pentecost, we see the result.
But there is one reason, and a great reason, why so many do not
succeed. I have been asked by a great many good men, "Why is it we
don't have any results? We work hard, pray hard, and preach hard, and
yet the success does not come." I will tell you. It is because a good
many people spend all their time mending their nets. No wonder they
never catch anything.
INQUIRY MEETINGS.
But the great matter is to _hold inquiry meetings_, and thus pull the
net in, and see if you have caught anything. If you are always mending
and setting the net, you won't catch many fish. Whoever heard of a man
going out to fish, and setting his net, and then letting it stop
there, and never pulling it in? Why, everybody would laugh at the
man's folly.
There was a minister in Manchester who came to me one day, and said,
"I wish you would tell me why we ministers don't succeed better than
we do." So I brought before him this idea of pulling in the net, and I
said, You ought to pull in your nets. I said there are many ministers
in Manchester who can preach much better than I can, but then I pull
in the net. Many people have objections to inquiry meetings, but I
urged upon him the importance of them, and the minister said, "I never
did pull in the net; I will try next Sunday." He did so, and eight
persons, anxious inquirers, went into his study. The next Sunday he
came down to see me, and said he had never had such a Sunday in his
life. He had met with marvellous blessing. The next time he drew the
net there were forty, and when he came to see me at the Opera House
the other day, he said to me joyfully, "Moody, I have had eight
hundred conversions this last year! It is a great mistake I did not
begin earlier to pull in the net." So, my friends, if you want to
catch men,
JUST PULL IN THE NET.
If you only catch one, it will be something. It may be a little child,
but I have known a little child convert a whole family. Why, you don't
know what's in that little dull-headed boy in the inquiry-room; he may
become a Martin Luther, a reformer that shall make the world
tremble--you cannot tell. God uses the weak things of this world to
confound the mighty. God's promise is as good as a Bank of England
note--"I promise to pay So-and-so," and here is one of Christ's
promissory notes--"If you will follow Me, I will make you fishers of
men." Will you not lay hold of the promise, and trust it, and follow
Him now?
But then, if you wish to catch men, you must use a little--what shall
I say?--
COMMON SENSE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account