I heard Mr. Sankey sing last week "The Ninety and Nine," and he prefaced it by saying that the old hymn was worn out. I was sorry to hear him say that, but there was one accent he gave in singing which was very affecting. When one expostulates with the shepherd that he has ninety and nine with him, he cries out: "It is my sheep." I fancy when Peter came to Pentecost and saw those great crowds before him there was one element of preparation he needed, and the Saviour had taught him how to feed his sheep and feed his lambs, and it lived so in his heart that nothing could be hid from it.
I am speaking too long on this matter. But it is a great subject. This Association has a glorious opportunity. There is no cause that comes to us that touches our inspiration and consecration like this society, and the opportunity is such as, in my judgment, the Christian Church never had.
Now, we say this, we cannot do this work by any other form of service but by preaching the Gospel, with at least these elements in it I have mentioned. We speak of the hand work for Christ, but we want the net work for Christ. When I was in Japan, I saw all over the bay, in the night, little boats of fishermen. The men were in the boats two and two, one holding a torch. They were busily engaged the night through. I asked one, "Is this your mode of fishing?" and I was shown a great seine net that lay upon the shore, and I was told, "This is here especially for day fishing." When I stood before the young men in the school at Kioto I referred to this. I said "It seems to me in Japan you are doing the night fishing now; it is fishing in the night with a torch, but, young men, there is a morning coming when the great net is to be cast, your hands are to be upon it, and you are to have the privilege of a great cast for God." It has come this year, and those young men went out preachers of righteousness, clothed with power to reach the masses of men, and they have drawn in hundreds, and there is hope of the thousands, and that is what we want in this work, men who can go to those Southern fields, to those five millions of whom we have heard, and cast the great seine net of the Gospel; and they are coming.
THE SOUTH.
Rev. Joseph E. Roy, D. D., Field Superintendent.
Prof. Albert Salisbury, Superintendent of Education.
ITINERARY FROM AUSTIN TO CORPUS CHRISTI.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.
Jan. 4, Sunday.—Assisted in organizing at the Tillotson Institute a church of twenty-one members. Lord's Supper. Prof. W. L. Gordon's two children baptized.