The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-02-16
REV. DIR. TALMAGE,
THE BROOKLYN DIViNEs sun
DAY SERMON
Subject, "God Among The Fishes.

TTyT: And GOn sdtu. Leu thS UdCefs
bring forth abundanttp The moving cren
lures that hath life" -Gsnesis l., 20.
What new book the Bible is? After
thirty-sx years preaching from 1t and dig.
cussing over 900 different subjects founded
on the word Of God, the book is as fresh to
me as when learned, with stretch OF in
fantile 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 any one elses
had ever explored, and having spoken to
you in this course o. sermons on God every
where concerning the Astronomy of the
Bible; or. God Among the Stars" the
"a hronology Of the Bible; or, God Among
the Centuries" the "Ocnitholosy of the
| Bible; or, God Among the Birds" the
"Mineralogy of the Bible; or, God Among
the Amethysts," this morning, as may bs
divinely helped, will speak to you about
the "IchthyoIogy 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 l could hardly get
nay 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 thres
times a Jay iDI lUTe6 VEGAS NS1oOd W app
tie. ! never want to see f1g 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dates with me are all out of date.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 dalec-
tated the first few days by crying out Fin.
ished." The most piQuant appetizer IS alb
stinsnce and the demand OF all the party
was, Let us breakfast on Sunday morning
Oh fresh fish from Lake Gennesareth," for
| you must know that that lake has four
names, and it is worth a profusion OF nomen'
clature and it is in the Bible called Chin.
neretb. Tiberias, Gennesareth and Galilee.
To our extemporizsd table on Sabbath
morning came broiled perch, only few
hours before lifted out of the sacred waters.
1t 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 breakfaste1. Christ had in those olden
times struck two hints together and set on
fire some shavings or light brusawood and
then put on larger wood, and a 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 thenet it hung dripping with
out futteriug fin or squlrmlng scale. But
Christ from the shore shouted to them an
told them where to drop the nst. and 153 big
fish rewarded them. Simon and Nathaniel,
having cleaned soma of those large fish,
brought them to the Goals waich Christ had
kindled, and the group who ha been out all
night and were chill AMI wet AMI hungry,
sat down and be gan masticaton. All that
scene came back to US when on Sabbath
morning, December, 1889, just outside the
ruins Of ancient TiOerias ani within souni
OF the ripping Galilee we breaktasted.
Now it 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 itkes-two be-
sides the one already mentioned-namsy,
the Dead sea, where fish cannot live at all,
and as soon as they touch it they die, an
the birds swoop on their tiny carcasses, AMI
the third, the Pools OF Heshbon, which are
alternately full and dry. Only three rivers
OF the Holy Land-Jabbok, Kishon and Jor-
ian.
About all the iisl now in the waters OF the
Holy Land are the perch, the carp, the
Dream, the minnow, the blsnny, the baroel
$50 called because of the barb at its MOUTH,
the club, the dogish, nole OF thsm worth
Delaware shad or an Adirondack trout.
Well, the worlds geography has changed,
and the worlds bill Of fare has changed.
Lake Galilee was larger and deeper and bet
ter stocked than now, and no doubt the
rivers were deeper and the fisheries were OF
far more Importance then than now.
Besides that, there was the Mediterranean
Tea only thirty-fve miles away, and fish
were salted or dried ami brou ght 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 1t was called the fish gate. The
cities had great reservoirs in which fish
were kept alive and bred. The pool of Gibson
was fish pool. Isaiah and Solomon refer
to fish pools. Large fish were kept alive
and cd forf Lrr,. rkaI~., in, has
reservoirs, a ring having been run through
their gills. and that is the meaning of the
Scripture passage whica says, "Canst thou
puta hook into his nose or bore his jaw
through with thorn
So important was the fish that the gol
Dagon, worshlpei by the PoiIistines, was
made half fish and half man, ani that is the
meaning of the Lords Indignation when in
| Samuel we read tnat this Dag0n, the fish
god, stood beside the ark OF the Lori, ana
Dagon was by Invisible hands dashs to
pieces because the PAilistines had dared to
make thu fish {. god. That explains tne
Scripture passage TIE hea OF Dagon AMI
both tia palms Of his hands wers cut of up.
on the threshold; only the stump OF D4gon
was left to him. Now, the stump OF Dagon
was the fish part. Ths top part, which was
the figure OF man, was dasde to p:eceS,
and the Lord, by demolshing every tnIns
but the stump or fish part OF the idol, prac-
tically said, You may keep your fish, but
know from the way | have demolished the
rest OF the idol thai it is nothing divine
Lsyard and Wilkinson found the fish an
object of idolatry all through Assyr.a and
Egypt The Nile was full of dsh, aui that
explains the horrors OF the plagus that
slauz htered the fany tribs all up and down
that river, wdicl has been and is now the
main artery OF Esytts life. In job you
hear the plunge OF Cae spear iuto tAe alp
popotamus as the great dramatic post cries
out, "CansI thou fill his sin VITA bar5a
irons or his head with fish spesr s?' Yea,
the fish began to swim in the very first book
of Genesis, where my text records, And
God SAID Let the waters bring forth a5un1-
antly the moving creature that hath life"
Do you reahZs that tins frat living
thing that God created was the fish? 1t
preceded the bird, the quadrupei, the
human race. The fish has priority OF resi-
dence over every living thing. The next
thing done alter God mad kinllei for our
world the golden chandelier OF the sun AMI
the silver chandelier of the moon was TO
make the FISH. The first motion of the
principle OF life, a principle that all the
thousands OF years since have not been able
to define or analyze-the very first stir of
hfe-was in a fish
What an hour that was when in the Eu.
pirates the Glhon, tIe Pson AMI the Hid
deSe the four rivers OF Paradise, the waters
swiriel with tls and brignUenei with