Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1893-02-09
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIyINEs SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject, -"God Among the Fishes. .

TEXT: "And God said. Let the ,,ote,
orfng forth dbundantly the NORMA creo
tures that hath Hfe."-Genesis l., %.
What new book the Bible iss Afta
tnirty-six years preaching from it and dis
cuss,ng over 5000 different subjects founde
on the word Of God the book is as fire. n n
me as wnen learned, with stretch of in
Ian,iie memory, tho shortest verse in th,
oioie, Jesus wept," and | opened a few
weeks ago new realm of Biblical interes
snao neither my pulpit nor any one else's
nau ever explored, and having spoken tc
you IN this course of sermons on God everv-
wnere concerning the Astronomy of The
D,inie; or, God Among the Stars:n the
..hronology Of the Bible; or, God Amono
gne Centuries;" the "OrnithoIogv IF thee
bibie; or, God Among the Birds:n The
,Mineraiogy of the Bible; or God Among
!ne Amethysts," this morning, as NAV he
alvinely helped, will speak to you about
sne lcnthyology of the Bible; Or God
Among the Fishes.n
Our horses wereylatherei and tirel ont
and their fetlocks were red with the blood
cuI OUT py the rocks, and | could hardly get
my IeeU out OF the stirrups as on Saturday
nignt we dlsmounted on the beach of Lake
uaiiiee The rather liberal suppy of food
with which we had started from Jerusalem
was Wen nigh exhausted, and the articles of
oiet remaining had by oft repetition three
.illes DAY FOR three weeks ceased to appa-
a. AZ never want to see fig again, and
oates with me are all out Of date.
For several days the Arab caterer who
couid speak but half a dozen English words.
would answer our requests for some Of the
styles or FOOD with which we had been delec-
.aee9 1ne mrst few days by crying out "Fin.
lsned.' The most piquant appetizer is alb.
stlnance, and the demand OF all the party
was, Let us breakfast on Sunday morning
On lresn nsh from Lake Gennesareth, for
you must know that that lake has four
names, ana 1T is worth profusion OF nomen-
clature, and it is in the Bible called Chin.
he.Teth, Iiberias. Gennesareth and Galilee.
20 our extemporized table on Sabbath
morning came broiled perch, only few
nours before lifted out of the sacred waters.
i5 was natural that our minds should revert
70 The only breakfast that Christ ever IRE.
Pareo, ana II was on those very shores where
we oreakfasted. Christ had in those olden
elmes struck two flints together and set on
ilre some shavingsor light brushwooa and
then put on larger wood, and a pile of glow
ing bright Goals was the consequence
Meanwhile the disciples fishing on the lake
mad awfully poor luck" and every time
tney drew up the net it hung dripping with
out nuttering fin or squirming scale. But
Cnrist from the shore shouted to them anil
1 = tnem where to drop the net, and 153 big
iish 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 ont ali
mgnt and We're chill and wet and hungry.
sa0 down and began mastication. All that
scene came back to us when on Sabbath
morning, December, 1889, just outside the
iuins Oh ancient Iiberias and witnin sounl
Oh the ripping Galilee, we breakfastsd.
now, IL IS not strange that the Bible i'm
agefy IS SO inwrolght from the fisheries
"hen the Holy Land is, for the most part,
an inland region? Only three lakes-two be.
sides the one already mentioned-aamely
the Dead Sea, where fish cannot live at al,
ana ., as soon as they touch it they die, and
" Tue Dirds swoop on their tiny carcassas, an
the third, the Pools OF Heshbon, which ara
full and dry. Only TIRES rivers
OF the Holy Iand-Jabbok, Kishon and Jor-
About all the iisK now in the waters of til.
Holy Land are the perch, the carp, the
Dream, the minnow, the blanny, tn, BARI. il
$50 called because of the barb az its MOUTH
tne chuh, the dogfish, none OF them worth a
D Ne shad or an Adirondack trout.
wen, the worlds geography has changed.
ana the worlds bill of fare has change 4.
Lake Galilee was larger and deeper and bet
ter stocked than now, and no DOUBT the
rivers We're deeper ana the fisheries were of
Iar more importance then thau now.
Besides that, there was the Mediterranean
lea only thirty-five miles away, and fish
were salted or dried AMI brough 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
we're Kept alive and bred. The pool of Gideon
was a fish pool. Isaiah and Solomon refer
to fish pools. Large fish were kept alive
aud tied fast by ropes to stake in these
reservoirs ring having been run through
their gills, and that is tho meaning of the
Scripture passage which says, "Canst thou
put hook into his nose or bore his law
through with thorn"
So important was the fish that the god
Dagon, worshiped by tbs Philistines, was
made half fish and half man, and that is the
meaning OF the Lords Indignation when in
Samuel weread that this Dagon, 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 god. That explains the
Scripture passage "The head of Da yon and
both the palms OF his hands vera cut off up
On the threshold; 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 man, was dashed to pieces,
and the Lord by demolishing every thing
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 that it is nothing divine"
Layard and Wilkinson found the fish an
pbject Of idolatry all through Assyria and
Egypt The Nile was full of fish, and that
explains the horrors of the plague that
slaughtered the fiany tribe all up and down
hat river, which has been and is now the
main artery of Egypts life. In Job you
hear the plunge OF the spear into the hip
)opotamus as the great dramatic poat cries
,ut, "Canst thou fill his skin with barbei
rons. or his head with fish spesrs?' Yea,
The fish began to swim in the very first book
If Genesis where my text records, sand
iod said, Let the waters bring forth abund-
antly the moving creature that hath life."
Do you realza that the first living
hing that God created was the fish? 1t
preceded the bird, the qaadrupei, the
human race. The fish has priority OF resi-
ience over every living thing. The next
hing done after God had kindled for our
world the golden chandelier OF the SUI and
;he 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
o define or analyze-the very first stir OF
ife-was in a fish
What en- hour that was when in the Eu-
,hrates, the Gihon. the Pison and the Hid
iekel, the four rivers of Paradise, the waters
wirled with fins and brigntenei with
Gales. All the attributes OF the infinite
Tod were called into action for the making
II that first fish. Lancaoiate aud translu-
ent miracle Ynere is. enough wonder in