The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-02-08
AT THE TABERNACLE.
THE IcHTHYoLoeY AND OTHER NAT
URAL HISTORY OF THE BIBLE.

ouces Many Lessons From the Mention
of Fish In the Bible.
BRooKLYS, Feb. 5.-Rev. 7. Dewitt Tai
mage this morning preached to great au-
dience in the Tabernacle remarkably in
teresting and eloquent sermon on The Ich-
THEOLOGY of the Bible; or, God Among the
Fishes being continuation of his series
of discourseS OF God everywhere. The
text chosen was Genesis i, 20, And God
said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creatures that hath life"
What a new book the Bible Isl After
&c years preaching from it and discussing
over 5000 different subjects founded on the
word Of God the book rs as fresh to me as
when learned, with a stretch of infantile
memory, the shortest verse In the Bible,
"Jesus wept," and l opened a few weeks
ago a new realm of Biblical interest that
neither my pulpit nor any one else's had
ever explored, and having spoken to you in
this course of sermons on God everywhere
concerning the Astronomy of the Bible;
or, God Among the Stars" the "Chronol-
Dgy of the Bible; or, God Among the Cen
turies;" the 'OrnithOlOgy of the Bible; or,
God Among the Birds the 'Nineralogy
of the Bible; or, God Among the Anne
thysts," this morning, as l may be divinely
helped, will speak to you about the Itch
THEOLOGY of the Bible; or, God Among the
Fishes"
THE SEA OF MANY NAMES.
Our horses were lathered and tired out,
and their fetlocks were red with the blood
cut out by the rocks, and could hardly
s.t my feet out OF the stirrups as on Satur-
day night we dismounted on the beach Of
Lake Galilee The rather liberal supply of
food with which we had started from Jeru-
salem was we'll nigh exhausted, and the
articles Of diet remaining had, by oft repe-
.itiOn three times a day for three weeks,
ceased TO appetite. | never want TO see
6g again, and dates with me are all out of
date
For several days the Arab caterer, who
could speak but half a dozen English
words, would answer our requests for some
of the styles of food with which we had
been delectated the first few DAYS by cry
ing out, Finished" The most piquant ap
petizer is abstinence, and the demand of all
the party was. let us breakfast on Sun
day morning on fresh fish from Lake Gen
nesareth," for you must know that that
lake has four names. and 1t is worth pro
l,IsiOn of nomenclature. and il Is in the
Bible called Chinnereth, Liberals, Gennesa-
eeth and Galilee
To our extemporized table on Sabbath
morning, came brOiled perch. only a few
hours before lifted out OF the sacred waters
1t was natural that our minds should re
vert to the only breakfast that Christ ever
prepared, and it was on those very shores
where we breakfHsted. Christ had in those
oIden times struck two fiints together and
set on fire some shavings or light brush
wood and then put on larger wood and a
pile of glowing bright Goals was the con
sequence.
Meanwhile the disciples fishing on the
lake had awfully poor luck" and every
time they drew up the net it hung dripping
without fluttering lin OF squirming scale
But Christ from the shore shouted to them
and told them where to drop the net, and
153 big fish rewarded them. Simon and
Nathaniel having cleaned some of those
large fish, brought them to the Goals WIFI
Christ had kindled. and the group who had
been out I'll night and were chill and wet
and hungry sat down and began mastica-
ton. All that scene came back TO us when
on Sabbath morning, December, 1889. just
outside the ruins Of ancient Tiberias and
within sound Of the ripping Galilee. we
breakfasted
FISHING GREAT BIBLE TOPIC.
Now, Is il not strange that the Bible i'm
agery i 50 inwrought from the fisheries
when the Holy Land Is for the most part,
an inland region? Only three lakes. two
besides the one already acknowledgements
the Dead sea- where fish cannot live at all
and as soon IS they touch it they die, and
the birds swoop on their tiny carcasses. and
the third, the Pools of Heshbon, which are
alternately full and dry. Only three rivers
OF the Holy Land. Jabbok, Kishon and Jor-
dan About all the fish now in the waters
q 2 ha oil F1, II.
the Dream, the minnow, the blenny. the
barbel $50 called because of the barb at us
mouthl, the club, the dogfsh, none of
them worth Delaware shad or an Adiron-
dack trout
Well the worlds geography has changed.
and the worlds bill of fare has changed.
Lake Galilee was larger and deeper and
better stocked than now, and no doubt the
rivers were deeper and the fisheries were
of far more Importance then than now
Besides that there the Mediterranean
sea only 81 miles away, and fish were salt
ed or dried and brought inland, and So
much of that article of food was sold in
Jerusalem that fish market gave the
name to one Of the gates Of Jerusalem near
by, and it was called the fish gate.
The cities had great reservoirs in which
the fish were kept alive and bred. The
Pool OF Gideon was a 6shpool Isaiah and
Solomon refer to fishpOols Large fish were
kept alive and tied fast by ropes TO a stake
IN these reservoirs, a ring having been run
through their gills, and that is the mean
lag of the Scripture passage which says.
"Canst thou put d book into his nose or
bore his jaw through with a thOTn2"
So important was the fish that the god
Dagon. worshiped by the PhilistiEes, was
made half fish and half man. and that is the
meaning Of the Lords indignation when in
Samuel we read that this Dagon, the fish
god, stood beside the ark of the Lord. and
Dagon was by invisible hands dashed 10
pieces because the Philstines had dared to
make the fish god That explains the
Scripture passage. The head of Dagon and
both the palms Of his hands were cut of
upon the threshold: only the stump of Da-
gOn was left - him" Now, the stump Of
Dagon was the fish part The top part.
which was the figure Of man, was dashed
70 pieces, and the Lord. by demolishing ev-
erything but the stump or fish part of the
dol. practically said, You may keep your
fish, but know from the way have demOl-
ished the rest Of the idol that it is nothing
divine"
The FISH CANE BEFORE THE LAND ANIMALS
Layard and Wilkinson found the fish an
object Of idOlatry all through Assyria and
Egypt. The Nile was full Of fish. and that
explains the horrors Of the plague that
slaughtered the finny tribe all up and down
that river. which has been and is now the
main artery OF Egypt's life. In Job you
hear the plunge Of the spear into the hip
popotanns as the great dramatic poet cries
out, "Canst thou ill his skin with barbed
irons or MS head with fish spearsy'' Yea