The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-02-16

not been able to define or analyze, the
very first stir Of life was in a fish.
The Lord, by placing the fish in the
first course of the menu in8paradise,t
making it precede the bird and beast, |
Indicated to the world the Importance
of the fish as an article of human
food. The reason that men and
women lived 300 and 400 and 500
and 800 years was because they We're
kept on parched corn and fish. We
mix up a fantastic food that kills the
most of us before thirty years of age.
Custards and whipped sillaDubs and
Roman punches and chicken sands at
midnight are 4 gauntlet that few have
strength to run. We put on many a
tombstone glowing .epithets saying that
the person beneath died IF patriotic
services OF from exhaustion in re-
igious work when nothing killed the
poor fellow but lobster eaten at Il
party four hours after he ought to
have been sound asleep i'll bed. There
are men to-day in II streets sc many
walking. hospitals, who might have
been athletes, if they had taken the
hint of Genesis in my text and Of u
Lords remark and adhered to sim
plicity of diet. .
h made the twelve apostles such
stalWart men that they could endure
any thing and achieve everything?
Next to divine inspiration. it was be-
cause they were nearly all fishermen
and lived on fish and a few plain con-
diments. Paul. though not brought up
to swing the net and throw the line,
must Of necessity have adopted the
diet Of the population among whom he
lived, and you see the phosphorus in
his daring plea before Felix. and the
phosphorus in his bOldest Of all utter
ances before the wiseacres on Mars
Hill, and the phosphorus as he went
Without fright to his bcheading, and
the phosphorus You sec In he lives of
all the apostles, who moved right on
undaunted to certain martyrdom,
whether to be decapitated or flung off
precipices or hung i'll crucifiXion.
Phosphorus, shining in the dark with
out burning! No man or woman that
ever lived was independent Of ques-
tons of diet. Let those who by cir
cumst:tnces are compelled to simplicity
of diet, thank God for their rescue
from the temptation of killing delica-
cieS.
Know, also, in order to understand
the ichthyology of the Bible that in
the deeper waters, as those of the
Mediterranean, there were monsters
that are now extinct. The fools who
become infidels because they cannot
understand the engulfment of the re-
creant Jonah in a sea monster, might
have saved their souls by studying a.
little natural history. "Oh," says some
one, that story of Jonah was only a
fable" Say others, lit was interpo-
lated by some writer's of later times.''-
Others say: 1T vas a reproduction of
the story of Hercules devoured and
then restored from the monster" But
my reply is that history tells us that
there were monsters large enough to
whelm ships. The extinct ichthyosau-
rus Of other ages was thirty feet long,
and as late as the sixth century of
the Christian era, up and down the
Mediterranean there foated monsters
compared with which a modern whale
was a sardine or herring. . The shark
has again and again been found to
have swallowed a man entire.
Furthermore, in order that you may
understand the ichthyoloy of the
Bible, you must know hat there were
five ways of fishing. One was by a
fence of reeds and canes, within which
the fish were caught. But the Herodic
government forbade that on Lake Gal
| lice, lest pleasure boats be wrecked by
the stakes driven. Another mode was
by spearing; the waters Of Galilee so
clear, good aim could be taken for the
t%ransfXing. Another was by hook and
line, as where Isaiah says: THE
fishers also shall mourn, and they that
cast angle into the brooks shall Ia
ment." And Job says: "Canst thou
draw out leviathan with 4 hook?"
And Habakkirk says: "They take up
all Of them with the angle" Another
mode was by a casting net or that
which was flung from the shore. An
other by a drag net, or that which
was thrown from a boat and drawn
through the sea as the fishing smack
sailed on. How wonderful all this is
inwrought into the Bible imagery, and
it leads me to ask in which mode are
you and I fishing, for the church is the
boat and the gospel is the net and the
sea is the world and the fish are the
souls, and God addresses us as did
Simon and Andrew. saying: Follow
me and I will make you fishers of
men," But when is the best time to
fish for souls? In the night. Peter,
why did you say to Christ, 1--WE have
toiled all the night and have taken
nothing?" Why d. you not fish in the
daytime? He replies, You ought to
know that the night is the best time
for fishing!" At Tobyhanna Mills,
among the mountains of Pennsylvania,
I saw a friend with high boots and
fishing tackle, starting out at 8 o'clock
at night, and I said, Where / you
going?' He answered, Going to fish"
What. in the night" He answered,
Eyes, in the night" So the vast ma
iority of souls captured for God are
taken in times Of revival in the night
meetings. They might just as well
come at IL noon, but some Of them
will not. Ask the evangelists of olden
times, ask Finney, ask Nettleton, ask
Osborn, ask Daniel Baker, and then
ask all the modern evangelists which
is the best time to gather souls, and
they will answer, '"The night, by all
odds, the night" Not only the natural
night, but the night Of trouble. Sup
pose I go around in this audience and
q eli tho Christians when fhov xyoro. CON