The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-02-17
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Tho Ichthyology Of the Bible. or
God Among the Fishes.
Tho WondrOus Ways aud Works OF GOO
Demonstrated by the Denizens
OF the Deep-God IL, In
deed. Everywhere.
Rev. r. DeWitt Talmape de

of his series on God Everywhere" the
subject being GOD Among the Fishes"
and the text:
And God said. Let the waters bring forth
abundaatly the moving creatures that hath
hfe.-Genesis T.. 20
What a new Book the Bible isl After
thirty-six years preaching from it and
discussing over three thousand differ
ent subjects founded on the word of
God, the Book is as fresh to me as when
/ learned, with stretch of infantile
memory, the shortest verse in the Bible,
Jesus wept," and opened few weeks
ago a new realm of biblical interest
that neither my pulpit nor anyone
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 Chronology of the BIZ
bic, or God Among the Centuries;" "The
Ornithology of the Bible, or God Among
the Birds" THE Mineralogy of the
Bible, or God Among the Amethysts,"
this morning, as / may be divinely
helped, will speak to you about THE
Ichthyology Of the Bible, or God Among
the Fishes
Our horses were lathered and tired
out, and their fetlocks were red with
the blood cut out by the rocks, and
could hardly get my feet out of the
stirrups as on Saturday night we dis
mounted 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 arti-
cles of diet remaining had by oft repe-
tition, three times a day for three
weeks, ceased to appetite. 1 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me are all out of date.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, would
answer our requests for some of the
styles of food with which we had been
delectated the first few days, by crying
out. Finished" The most piquant
appetizer is abstinence, and the de-
mand 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 a profusion
of nomenclature, and it is in the
Bible called Chinnereth, Tiberias,
Gennesareth 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 revert to the only break
fast that Christ ever prepared, and it
was on those very shores where we
breahasted. Christ had, in those olden
times. struck two flints 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 consequence. Meanwhile, the
disciples, fishing on the lake, had
awfully 'poor luck" ard every time
they drew up the net it hung dripping
without f1uttering' fin o. squirming
scale. But Christ, from the shore,
shouted to them, and told them where
to drop the net, and one hundred and
fifty-three 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 had been out all
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 rip
ping Galilee, we brealzfasted.
Now, is it not strange that the Bible
imagery is so inwrought from the fish
cries, when the Holy Land is, for the
most part, an inland region? Only
three lakes, two besides the one al
ready mentioned, namely, the Dead
Sea, where fish can not 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 Heshbon,
which are alternately full and dry.
Only three rivers of the Holy Land.
Jabbok, Kishon and Jordan. About
all the fish now in the waters of the
Holy Land are the perch, the carp, the
Dream. the minnow, the blenny, the
barbel $50 called because of the barb
at it's mouth), the club, the dog fish,
none of them worth n Delaware shad
or an Adirondack trout Well, the
worlds geography has changed, and
the worlds bill of fare has changed.
Lake Galilee was larger, deeper and
better stocked than now, and no doubt
the rivers were deeper and the fisheries
were of far more Importance than now.
Besides that, there was the Mediterra-
mean sea only thirty-five miles away,
and fish were sailed 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 bred. The Pool of Gideon was
fish pool. Isaiah and Solomon speak of
fish pools. 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
ing of the Scripture passage which
says: "Canst though put hook into
his nose or bore his jaw through with
thorn?" So important was the fish that
the god Dagon worshipped by the Phil
istines, was made half fish and half
man, and that is the meaning of the
Lords indignation when, in first Sam
uel, we read that this Dagon, the fish
god, stood beside the ark of the Lord,
and Dagon was by invisible hands
dashed to pieces because the Philistines
had dared to make the fish god. That
explains the Scripture passage: 1.-THE
head of Dagon and both the palms of
his hands were cut off upon the thresh-
old; only the stump of Dagon was left
to him" Now the stump of Dagon was
the fish part The top part, which was
the figure of n man, was dashed to
nieces and the ord nv deruolishiuO