Of course, we do not want our beautiful services to be altered in substance; but we may have variations sanctioned by authority. In fishing for men we are not bound by one method. If we find that one method does not succeed, we must try another. I have already sanctioned in the diocese a shortened form of Evening Service. For those not reached by services in church we must have open-air services. People will listen at the windows in the little square or street in which they live. There must be, too, special services for such organisations as Boy Scouts and Church Lads' Brigade. For the ordinary Sunday-School we are now able to have new methods provided by experts for the diocese. Then, if the Sunday-School system does not seem to suit your particular parish, try catechising in church. I am only suggesting--it is not for me to lay down this or that rule as to what is to be tried. My point is this: With the HOLY SPIRIT guiding you, and with the inventiveness of love, you will be able to bring out of your treasure things new and old. Although one of the oldest things in the world, the Church is yet the youngest. We never grow old, and, acting with the inventiveness of youth, we ought to be thinking out new plans and new methods all the time; and while I am speaking upon the inventiveness and freshness of the successful fisherman, I need not say that I shall be only too happy to sanction almost any new experiment you may wish to make in fishing for men, if you will submit to me the prayers you think of using, and if I think the suggested method consistent with the teaching of the Church to which we both belong.
(2) Then there must be, too--every true fisherman knows this--a _ripple on the water_ for fishing, best of all a light breeze in the morning. That means that it is a fishing-day. And do you not know what I mean when I say that there seems to be no ripple on some parishes at all? The whole of the surface of the parish seems as dull as ditch-water--no ripple, no fish. If there is no sense of expectancy, no keenness, no enjoyment, no happy spirit, among the workers, there will be no fish. I would like you to ask yourselves whether there is such a ripple in your parish, or whether it is all very dull and dead. And I would like to ask anyone who seems to recognise that there is nothing going on, and that there has been no catch, yesterday, to-day, or the day before, to ask himself if he cannot go back and create a ripple in the parish. When you think over how that ripple is to be created, of course, it can only be by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT brooding over the waters, as He originally brooded over the waters and brought cosmos out of chaos. I believe the chief way, if I may reduce the metaphor to prosaic terms, the chief way must be by constantly praying for the parish and the people, that the HOLY SPIRIT may come and stir the dulness by creating a spirit of expectancy and a joy in the work. When you are obviously enjoying your work yourself, and making the Sunday-School teachers and the workers enjoy it, you may expect a ripple in the parish. Joy in the work is a most attractive thing. There must be the joy throughout the parish, among clergy and workers; the curates and the Vicar must be at one, with no friction between them, and they and the workers a real band of brothers and sisters all fishing in the same waters. Pray very earnestly for this. I shall not bring in more at this point about the necessity for intercession. Remember that it is the parish priest who is perpetually praying for his people individually, and teaching his people to pray, who is the most successful. In my experience it is the praying parish that has a ripple on the surface. I see a wonderful quantity of fish caught in a parish of that kind.