The Penn's Grove record., 1893-02-10
REV.. DIR. TALMACf,
The Brooklyn Divine's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject: GOD Among the Fishes"

TEXT: "And God said. Let the tc1ter,
bring forth abunddntiy the moving creG
lures that hath De."-Gsuesis l.. 20.
What a new book the Bible is, Afte.
thirty-six years preaching from it and dis
cussing over 300 different subjects founded
on the word of God, the book is as fresh to
me as when | learned, with a stretch OF in
fantile memory, the shortest verse in the
Bible, Jesus went" and / opened a few
weeks ago a new realm Of Biblical interest
that neither my pulpit nor any one else's
had ever explored, n having spoken to
i YOU in this course of sermons on God every
where concerning the Astronomy Of the
Bible; or, God Among the stars" the
" hroEology of the Bible; or, God Among
the Centurie.;'' the .tOrnithology of the
Billie; or, God Among the Birds" the
"Mineralosy of the Bible; or, God Among
the Amethysts," this morning, as [ may be
divinely helped, l will speak to you about
the ''Ichthyology of the Bible; or. God
Among the Fishes"
Our horses were lathered and tire1 out,
and their fetlocks were rad with the blood
cut out by the rocks, aud l could hardly get
my feet out Of the stirrups as on Saturday
night we dismonuted 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 three
times a day for three weeks ceased to p
tia. 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dates with me are all out of date.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 a dozen English words,
would answer our requests for soma OF the
styles of food with which we had been delec-
tated the first few days by crying out "Fin-
ished." The most piquant appetizer is abb
stinance, and the demand of all toe party
4 was, "Let US breakfast on Sunday morning
on fresh fish from Lake Gennesareth,n for
you must know that that lake has four
names, and 1t is worth a profusion OF nomen-
%clature, and it is in the Bible called Chin
uereth, Tiberias, Gennesareth and Galilee.
To our extemporized table on Sabbath
morning came broiied perch. only a 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 breakfasted. Christ had in those olden
times struck two fiints together and set on
fire some shavings or light brushwood and
then put on larger wcod, n a pile OF glow
ing bright Goals was the consequence.
Meanwhile tue disciples fishing on the laN
had awfully poor luck" and every time
they drew up the net it hung dripping with
out a hutteriDg ha or squirming scale. But
Christ from the shore shouted to them AMI
told them where to 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 hal been out all
night and were chill AMI wet and hungry,
sat down and began mastication. All that
scene came back to US when on Sabbath
morning, December. 1889, just outside the
ruins of ancient Tiberias and within souul
OF the ripping Galilee, we breakfasted.
Now, 1t is not strange that the Bible i'm
agery is so inwrought from the fisheries
wnen the Holy Land is, for the most part.
an inlani re yions Only three lakes-two be-
sides the one already ENTHUSIASTICALLY,
the Dead Ses, where fish cannot live at all,
n as soon as they touch it they die, AMI
the birds swoop on their tiny carcasses, n
the third, the Pools OF Heshoon, which are
alternately full and dry. Only three rivers
OF the holy ~Land-Jabbok, Kishon and Jor-
dan.
About all the fish now in the waters Of the
Holy Land are the perch, the carp, the
Dream, the minnow, the blenny, tho barbel
$50 called because of the barb at its MOUTH,
the club, the dogfsh. none of them worth a
Delaware shad or an Adirondack trout.
Well, the worlds geography has changed,
the worlds bill of fare has changed.
Lake Galiiee was larger and deeper and bet
ter stocked than now, and no doubt the
rivers were deeper and the fisheries were of
tar more importance then than now.
Besides that, there was the Mediterranean
Tea only thirty-five miles away, and Ash
were sailed or dried n brought inland,
and so much Of that article OF food was sold
In Jerusalem that a 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 a fish pool. Isaiah and Solomon refer
to fish pools. Large fish were kept alive
and tied fast by ropes to a stake in these
reservoirs, q ring having been run through
their giDs, and that is the meaning of the
Scripture passage which says, "Canst thou
put a hook into his nose or bore his jaw
through with a thorn"
So important was the fish that the god
Dagop, w~orshIpei by thu Philistines, was
made half fish and nalf man, ani that is the
meaning of the Lords Indignation when in
l Samuel we real tnat this Dagon, the fish
god, stood beside the ark OF the Lord, and
Dagon was by invisible hands dashed to
pieces because the Pailistine3 mad dared to
make the fish e god, That explains the
Scripture passage, The heal of Dagon and
both tina palms of his hands we're cut off up-
on the threshold; only the stump OF Dagou
was left to him." Now, the stump OF Dagon
was the fish part. Tie top part which was
the figure Of q man, was dashed to pieces,
and the Lord, by demoIishing every tnIng
but the stump or fish part of the idol, prac-
tically said, = iou may keep your fish, but
know from the way 1 have demolished the
rest of the idol that it Is nothing divine.n
Layard and Wilkinson found the fish an
object OF idolatry all through Assyria and
Egypt. The Nile was tuli Of fish, and that
explains the horrors Of the plague that
slaughtered the funny tribe all up aud down
that river, whicl has been and is now the
main artery Of Egypts life. In Job You
popotamus as the great dramatic poet cries
out, ''Cansu thou fill his skin with barbed
irons or his head with FISH spearsf' 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 abund-
entity the moving creature that hath hfe."
Do you realize that the FIRST living
thing that God created was the fishi 1t
preceded the bird, the quad-upe1, the
human race. The fish has priority or resi-
dence over every living thing The next
thing done after God had kiniled for our
world the golden chandelier OF the SUI and
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 aDaiy ze-she very first stir of
ife-w was n a fish
What an hour that was when in the Eu
pirates, the Glhon, the Pison and ths Hid
dekel, the our rivers of Paradise, the waters
swirled with fus and Frightened with
scales. All the attributes or the infinite
God were called into action for the making
OF that first fish. Lanceolate and translu-
cent miracle. There Is enough wonder IL
the plate OF q sturgeon or in the cartilage OF
a shark to confound the scientist. IL does
not take the universe to prove a Col. A
fish does it. No wonder that Linneus and
Culver and Agassiz and the greatest minds
Of all the centuries sat enrapturei before its
anatomy.
On, its beauty AMI the aiaptsiness Of IL.
structure to the element in w1ici it must
live: the picture gallery on the sides OF the
mountain trout unveilei as they spring up
to snatch the flies; the graying. called the
flower OF fishes; tns salmon, a~scenting the
Oregon ami the Severn, easily ieaping the
falls that would stop the n; tne toll perch,
the gudgeon. silver AMI black spotted; the
herring, moving in squairons five rifles
long; tine carp, for cunaing caliei the fox
Of fishes; the wonirous stur ,eons, former "
reserved for the tables of roval families. and
the ~isinglass ma is out Of their membrane;
the tench, calle] the physician of fishes, be-
cause when applied to hu nan ailments It Is
said to be curative; the iampreys. so tempt
ing to the epicureau that too many Of them
slew Henry H-aye, the whole world Of
dshesl