Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-02-17
REV. DIR. TALMAGB.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
SUBJECT: God Among ;he Fishes"


s,,reS that hath Hfe"-G snesis l.. 70.
What a new book the Bible is? After
thirty-six years preaching from it and dis.
cussing over 3020 different subjects founded
on the word of God, the book is as fresh to
me as when | learned, with stretc OF in
fantile memory, the shortest versi in the
Bible, Jesus wept," and | opeaei few
weeks ago a new realm of Biblical interest
that neither my pulpit nor any OLD elses
had ever explored, and having sptken to
you in this course OF sermons on Go every
where concerning the Astronomy Ut the
Bible; or, God Among the Stars the
chronology of the Bible; or, God Among
the Centuries" the "Ornithology OF the
Bible; or, God Among the Birds" the
"Mineralogy of the Bible; or, God Among
the AmetbySts," this morning, as may be
divinely helped, will speak to yoIl about
the "Ichthyology of the Bible; Dr. God
Among the Fishes"
Our horses were latherei and tite out
and their fetlocks were red with tile blood
cut out by the rocks, and | could hardly get
my feet out of the stirrups as on Saturday
night we dismounted on the beach of Lake
Galilee, The rather liberal supply OF food
with which we had started from Jerusalem
was well nigh exhausted, and the articles OF
diet remaining had by oft repetition three
times day for three weeks ceased TO appe-
tia never want to see a fig again, and
dates with me are all out Of date.
For several days the Arab caterer, who
could speak but half dozen English words,
wou'd answer our requests for soma OF the
styles of food with which we had been delec-
tated the first few days by crying out "Fin'
ished." The most piquant appetizer is alb
stinance, and the demand OF all the party
was, LET US breakfast on Sunday morning
on fresh fish from Lake Gennesareth," for
you must know that that lake has four
names. and it is worth profusion OF nomen.
clature. and it is in the Bible called Chin
neretb. Tiberias, Gennesareth and Galilee
70 our extemporizsd table on Sabbath
morning came broled perch, only few
hours before lifted out Of the sacred waters.
IL was natural that our minds should revert
to the only breakfast that Christ ever pre-
pared, and it was on those very shores where
we breakfastei, Christ had in those olden
times struck two fints together AMI set on
fire some shavings or light brushwoo1 and
then put on larger wood and pile of glow
ing bright Goals was the consequence.
Meanwhile the disciples fishing on the lake
had awfully poor luck" and every time
they drew up the net it hung dripping with
out f1uttering fin or squirming SCALE But
Christ from the shore shouted to them AMI
told them where to drop the net. and 1S3 big
fish rewarded them. Simon and Nathaniel,
having cleaned some of those large fish,
brought them to the Goals which Christ had
kindled, and the group who hal been out all
night and were chill and wet and hungry,
sat down and began masticatlon, All that
scene came back to US when on Sabbath
morning, December, 1889, just outside the
ruins of ancient Tiberias and within souni
of the ripping Galilee, we breakfasted.
Now, IL is not strange that the Bible IN
agery is so inwrought from the fisheries
when the Holy Land is, for the most part.
an inland region? Only three lakes-two be-
sides the one already entioned-namely,
the Dead Sea, where fish cannot live at all,
and as soon as they touch it they die, and
the birds swoop on their tiny carcasses, and
the third, the Pools OF HeshooD, which ara
alternately full and dry. Only three rivers
of the Holy Land-Jabbok, Kishon and Jor-
Ian.
About all the fish now in the waters OF the
Holy LAM are the perch, the carp, the
Dream, the minnow, the blsnny, tho barbsl
$50 called because of the barb at its mouth,
the club, the dog6sh, none of them worth
Delaware shad or an Adirondack trout,
Well, the worlds geography has changed,
and the worlds bill OF fare has changed.
Lake Gslilee was larger and deeper and bet
ter stocked than now, and no doubt the
rivers were deeper and the fisheries were or
far more Importance then than now.
Besides that, there was the Mediterranean
Tea only thirty.five miles away and fish
were salted 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 fish
were kept alive and bredSThe pool of Gideon
was fish pool. Isaiah and Solomon refer
to fish pools. Large fish were kept alive
and tied fast by ropes to stake IN these
reservoirs, a ring having been ru1 through
their gills. and that is the meaning OF the
Scripture passage which says. "Canst thou
put hook into his nose or bore his Jaw
through with a thorn"
So important was the fish that toe god
DagoD, worshipe1 by thu Philistines, was
made half fish and half man, aud that is the
meaning of the Lords Indignation when In
Samuel we read that this DaZon, the fish
god. stood beside the ark Of the Lord, and
Dagon was by invisible hands dashed to
pieces because the Pnilistines had dared to
make the fish q god That explains the
Scripture passage, the head of Dagon and
both the palms of his hands wers cut off up
on the threshold; only the stump OF Dlgon
was LETT to him." Now, the stump of Dagon
was the fish part. The top part which was
She figure of a man, was dashe 10 pieces,
and the LORD, by demolishing every thing
but the stump or fish part of the idol, prac-
ticaly said, you may keep your fish, but
know from the way | have demolished the
rest OF the idol that it is nothing divine"
Layard AMI 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 fnny tribe all up and down
that river, wnicl has been and is now the
main artery of Egylts life. In job you
hear the plunge of the spear into the hip
popotamus as the great dramatic poet cries
out, "Canst thou fill his SKIN with bar6ed
irons or his head with fish spearsY ca,
the fish began to swim in the very first book
of Genesis, where my text records, And
God said. Let the waters bring forth abund-
antly the moving creature that hath life"
Do YOU realize that the first living
thing that God created was the fish, 1t
preceded the bird, the quadruped, the
human race The fish has priority OF resi-
dence over every living thing. The next
thing done after God had kindled for our
world the golden chandelier OF the SUI AMI
the silver chandelier of the moon was to
make the fish. The first motion of the
principle of life, principle that all the
thousands of years since have not been abls
to define or aualyze-the very first stir OF
life-was in fish
What an hour that was when in the Eu
pbrates, the Gihon, the Pison and the Hid
dekel, the four rivers of Paradise, the waters
swirled with fius and frightened with
scales. All the attributes OF the infinite
God were called into action for the making
of that first fish. Lanceolate and translu
cent miracle. There is enough wonder in
the plate of sturgeon or in the cartilage Of
shark to confound the scientist. 1t does
no; take the universe to prove Col. A
fish does it. No wonder that Linn@us and