The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-02-09
svnrlIURE ICHTHYOLOCY
,urxRpRETED BY DIR. rALMAoD.
ood Created the rinny Tribe Before All
others: and the Sacred Writings
Are Filled With Their Inn
agery. Bible Fishes.


bring forth dbundonttp the moving crea-
f,ves that hath Hfe."--G snesis L., 20
What a new book the Bible is. After
thirty-sx years presching from IL and dis
cussing over 30oO different subjects founded
ON the word Of q I'd, the book IL as fresh TO
me as when learned, with a stretch OF in
fantile memory, the shortest verss In the
Bible, Jesus went" and I 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 every
where concerning the Astronomy of the
bible: or, God Among tbs stars" the
=" hrouology OF the Bible; or. God Among
the Csnturies;" the ''Ornitnology Of the
Bible. or, God Among the Birds" the
'Mineralo ~ Of the Bible; or, Col Among
the Amethyst" this morning. as may be
div,uely helped, will speak TO you about
the "Ichthyology OF the Bible; or, God
Among the Fishes"
Our horses were lathersi and tire out,
and their fetlocks were rsd with the blood
cut out by the rocks, and could hardly get
my feet out OF the strrups as on Saturday
night we dismouuted on the beach Of Lake
Gallee. The rather literal suppy OF food
with which we hal started from Jerusalem
was well nigh exdausted. and the articles OF
diet remaining had by oft repetition three
times n day for three weeks ceased to apps
tie. never want TO see fig 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dates with me are all out of date.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 delec-
tated the first few days by crying out "Fin-
ished." The most piquant appstiz ,r is ab.
stinance. and the demand OF all the party
wat. Let us breakfast ON Sunday morning
on iresn fish from Lake Gennesarsth,n for
you must know that that lake has four
names, AMI IL is worth profusion OF nomen-
clature, and u Is IN the Bible called Chin
neretb, Tiberias, Gennesareth and Galilee.
To our extemporiz ID table on Sabbath
morning came broiled perch, only n few
hours before lifted out Of the sacred waters.
lt was natural that our min1s should revert
to the only breakfast that Christ ever pre-
pared, and IL was on those very shores where
we brsaktasted. Christ had in those olden
times struck two fiints To yether and set on
fire some shavings or light brushwood 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 afiuttering fin or squirming scale. But
Christ from the shore shouted to them and
told them where 20 drop the net, and 153 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 msstication. All that
scene came back to us when on Sabbath
morning, December, 1899, just outside the
ruins OF ancient Tioerias aud within souli
OF the ripping Galilee. we breaStastei.
Now. IL Is not strange that the Bihle im-
agery is so inwrought from the fisheries
when the Holy Land is, for the most part.
n1 tAno Dt.l. l.lr. h.
sides the one already mentionei-uamely,
the Dead Sea, whore fish cannot livs at all.
aud as soon as they touch it they die, AMI
the birds swoop on their tiny carcasses. and
the third, the Pools OF Heshbon, which are
hternateiy full and dry. Only three rivers
" the Holy Land-JabDok, Kshon aud Jor-
IAN.
Apout sll the flsh now ia the watsrs OF the
holy Land are the perch, the carp, tia
Dream. che minnow. the blenny, tho barbel
TO called because OF the barb at its mouth,
1she club, the doghsh, none OF them worth q
ksiaware shad or an Adirondack trout
leu, the worlds geography has canged,
(Nd the worlds bill of fare has change
axe Galilee was larger and dsper and bet
or stocked than now, and no doubt the
-ivers were deeper and the isheries wers OF
an more Importance therthan now.
Hrsides that, there WIS the Mediterranean
tr'. only thirty-hvs miles away, and fish
", salted or died and brou yht inland,
and snfnuesNof that article OF food was sold
IN jerusalem that a fish market gave tho
nam 70 one % the gates OF jerusalem near
nv and It was called the fish gate. The
les had great reservoirs In which fish
were kept alive and brad. The pool OF Gibson
va ish pool. Isaiah and Solomon refer
'o H. pools. Large fish were kept alive
ana iltd fast by ropes TO stake in these
reservoirs, "A ring having been run 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 thorn"
So important was the fish that the gol
Dagon, worshipel by the Philistines, was
made half fish and half man, aud that Is the
meaning OF the Lords Indignation when in
Samuel we read that this Da son, the fish
god, stood beside the ark OF the Lord, and
Dagon was by invisible hands dashed to
pieces because the Philistlnes had dared to
make the fish e god. That explains the
Scripture passage, "Tne head of Dayon and
both tina palms OF his hands were cut Off up.
on the threshold; only the stump OF Digon
was lett TO him." Now, the stump OF DaSon
was the fish part. The top part, which was
the figure OF q man, was dashei TO piec ss,
and the Lord, by denolishing every thing
out the stump or fish part of the idol, prsc-
tlcally said, you may keep your fish, but
rest OF the idol that it is nothing divine"
Lsyard and Wilkinson found the fish an
oooJect 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 Esypts life. In Job you
near the plunge OF the spear into the nip
Popotamus as the great dramatic post cries
out, 'Csnst thou I'LL his skin with barbed
IRON irons or his head with fish spearsY Yea,
"a .9e o. hsh began TO swim in the very first book
o. o. oenesis, where my text records, And
ood said, Let the waters bring forth abund-
antiy the moving creature that hath life"
20 you realize that the first living
thlhg that God created was the hshl IL
preceded the bird, the qusdrupej, the
lunlan race. The fish has priority OF resi-.
uenee .'e over every living thing. The next
sninS zone after God had kindlod for our
wor'u ths golden chandelier of the sun and
cue shver chandelier OF the moon was TO
niaho the fish. The first motion Of the
pssnclple OF life, u principle that all the
sshousahds OF years since have not been able
10 ~ oellne or analyze-the very first stir OF
is-Was In fish
"aN an hour that was when in the Eu-
tula,sS the Gihon, tue Pison and this Hid