Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-02-06
GOD rs EVERYWHERE.
DR.. TALMAGE CONTINUES HIS SER
MONS ON THE BIBLE AND NATURE.

The Bible Abounds In Reference to Fish,
and They Are Indirectly Recommended
For Food-why Fishermen Were Chosen
For Apostles.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 5.-Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage this morning preached to a
great audience in the Tabernacle re-
markably interesting and eloquent SER
mon on ''The Ichthyology of the Bible;
or, God Among the Fishes, being con-
tinuation of his series of discourses on
God everywhere. The text chosen was
Genesis i, 20, ''And God said, Let the
waters bring forth abundantly the NOV
ing creature that hath life"
What new book the Bible is! After
SO years preaching from it and discuss
ing over 5000 different subjects founded
ON the word of God, the book is as fresh
to me aS when learned, with stretch
of infantile memory, the shortest verso
In the Bible, "Jesus wept," and 1 opened
a few weeks ago 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 everywhere concerning the CAS-
tronomy of the Bible; or, God Among
the Stars" the Chronology of the Bible;
or, God Among the Centuries" the cor
anthology of the Bible; or, God Among
the Birds" the ''Mineralogy of the BIZ
BILE; or, God Among the Amethysts,"
this morning, as I may be divinely
helped, will speak to you about the
''Ichthyology of the Bible; or. God
Among the Fishes
THE APOSTOLIC FISHERMEN.
Our horses We're 1athered and tired
out, and their fetlocks were red with the
blood cut out by the rocks, and could
hardly get my feet out of the stirrups as
on Saturday night we dismounted on the
beach of Lake Galilee. The rather lib
eral supply of food with which we had
started from Jerusalem was well nigh
exhausted, and the articles of diet re-
manning had by oft repetition three
times day for three weeks ceased to
appetite. Inever want to see fig again.
and dates with me arc all out of date.
For several daysthe 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 delectated the first few days
by crying out, Finished" The most
demand of all the party was, ''Let us
breakfast on Sunday morning ON fresh
fish from Lake Gennesareth," for you
must know that that lake has four names.
and it is worth q profusion of nomen-
clature, and it is in the Bible called
Chinnereth, Tiberias, Gennesareth and
Galilee.
To our extemporized 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 prepared, 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 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 drip
ping without Il fluttering fin or squir1l-
ing scale. But Christ from the shore
shouted to them and told them where to
drop the net, and 1913 big fish rewarded
them. Simon and Nathaniel. having
cleaned some of those large fish, brought
them to the Goals which Christ had
kndled, and the group who had been
out all night and were chill and wet and
hungry sat down and began mcstication
All that scene came back to us when on
Sabbath morning, December, 1889, just
outside the ruins of ancient Tiberias and
within sound of the ripping Galilee, we
breakfasted.
BIBLE ICHTHYOLOGY.
Now, is it not strange that the Bible
imagery IS so inwrought from the fish
cries when the Holy Land is. for the
most part, an inland region? Only three
lakes-two besides the one already men
tioned-namely, the Dead sea. where fish
cannot live at all, and as soon as they
touch it they die, and the birds swoop
ON their tiny carcasseS, and the third,
the Pools of Heshbon, which are alter
nately full and dry. Only three rivers of
the Holy Land-Jabbolz, 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, the
barbel $50 called because of the barb at
its mouth), the club. the dogfsh, none
of them 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 better 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 Mediterra-
mean sea only 80 miles away, and fish
were sailed or dried and brought 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 Jerusa-
lem near by, and it was called the fish
rata The cities had great reservoirs