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,