The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-02-22
tREV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINES SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "God Among the Fishes

tures that hath hfe."-Genesis l.. 20.
What a new book the Bible is, After
thirty-six years preaching from it and dis
,cussing over 3ON0 different subjects founded
on the word of God, the book Is as fresh to
me as when 7 learned, with stretch OF in
fantile memory, the shortest verse In the
Bible, "Jesus wept," and I opened few
weeks ago new realm Of Biblical interest
that neither my pulpit nor any one elses
had ever explored, and having spoken to
you in this course OF sermons on God every
where concerning the Astronomy OK the
Bible; or, God Among the Stars" the
|"Chronology of the Bible; or, God Among
the Centuries the ''Ornithology OF the
Bible: or. God Among the Birds" the
',Mineraloyy 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 tired out,
and their fetlocks were red with the blood
cut out by the rocks, and I could hardly get
my feet out Of the stirrups as ON Saturday
night we dismounted on the beach OF Lake
Galilee. The rather liberal suppy OF food
with which We had started from Jerusalem
was well pigh exhausted, and the articles OF
diet remaining had by oft repetition three
times day for three weeks ceased to appe,,
tie. I never want to see fig again, and
dates with me are all ont Of date.
For several days the Arab caterer, who
could speak but half dozen English words
would answer our requests for some OF the
styles Of food with which we had been deleo-
tated the first few days by crying out "Fin-
ished." The most piquant appetizer is alb
,stinsnces and the demand OF all the party
was, "Let us breakfast on Sunday morning
on fresh fish from Lake Gennesarsth," " for
you must know that that lake has four
names. and it is worth profusion Of nomen-
clature, and it is in the Bible called Chin
nereth, Tiberias, Gennesaretn and 9alilee.
!, To our extemporizsd table on Sabbath
morning came broiled perch. only few
hours before lifb4d out Of the sacred waters.
It YVES natural tnat ourS binds 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 fints 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 tho lake
had awfully poor luck" and every time
they drew up the net it hung dripping with.
out q aduttering lin or squirming scale. But
Christ from the shore shouted to them and
told them where to drop the net, and l5S big
fish rewarded them. Simon and Nathaniel,
havirg cleaned some OF those large tsh,
brought them to the Goals which Christ had
hndled, and the group who had been out all
night and wore chill and wet and hungry,
Bat down and,bezan masticatlon. Al that
scene came back to US when ON Sabbath
morning, December, 1889, just outside ths
ruips Of ancient Tiberias and within sound
Of the ripping Galilee, we breakfasted.
Now. it is not strange that the Bible I'M
agery is so inwrought from the fshsries
when the Holy Land Is for the most part,
IN inland regioni Only three lakes-two be-
Hdes the one already entioned-nameiy,
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
hlternately full and dry. Only three rivers
OF the Holy Land-JabDok, 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
(so called because Of the barb at its mouth),
The club, the dogdsh, none OF them worth q
Delaware shad OF an Adirondack trout.
We'll, the worlds geography has changed,
and the worlds bill OF fare has changed.
Lake Galilee was larger and deeper and bet
ter stocked than now, and no doubt the
Tar more importance then than now.
Besides that, there was the Mediterranean
Tea only thirty.fve miles away, and nsn
were salted or dried and brought inland,
and 50 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 tish
were kept alive and bred. The pool OF Gibeon
was fish pool. Isaiah and Solomon refer
to fish pools. Large fish ware kept alive
and tied fast by ropes to stake IN these
reservoirs ring having been run througn
their gills, and chat is the meaning or 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, worshlpei by the Philistines, was
made half fish and half man, aud that Is the
meaning Of tha Lords indignation when In
I Samuel we read that this DaZon, the fish
god, stood beside the ark OF the Lord, and
Dagon was by Invisible hands dashed to
pieces because the Fnilistines had dared to
make the fish god; That explains the
both tue palms OF his hands vera cut of 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
tie figure OF man, was dashei 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 hsh, but
know from the way have demolished the
rest OF the idol that it is nothing divine"
Layard and Wilkinson found the fish an
object of idolatry all through Assyria and
lEgypt. The Nile was full Of fish, and that
explains the horrors Of the plague that
slaughtered the fiuny tribe oil up and down
that river, wnicn has been and Is now the
main artery Of Egypts Life. In JOB you
popotamus as the great dramatic poet cries
out, ''Canst thou fill his skin with barbed
irons or his head with fish spearsT Yea,
the fish began to swim in the very first book
ofGenesis, where my text records, "And
God said, Let the waters bring forth abund-
antly the moving creature that hath ife."
Do you realIzs that the first living
thing that God created was the fish! It
preceded the bird, the quadruped, the
human race. The fish has priority OF resi-
dence over every living thing. The next
thing done after God had hndled for our
world the golden chandelier OF the sun and
the silver chandelier Of the moon was to
make the fish. The first motion OF the
,principle of life, principle that all the
thousands OF years since have not been abba
Ito define or analyze-the very first stir OF
:Me-was in . fish
What an hour that was when in the Eu.
pirates, the Gihon, the Pison and the Hid
;dekel, the four rivers Of Paradise, the waters
swirled with fms and frightened with
scales. All the attributes OF the infinite
God were called into action for the making
Of that first fish. Lancsolate and translu-
cent miracle. There Is enough wonder in
the plate Of a sturgeon or in the cartilage OF
q shark to confound the scientist. 1t does
not take the universe to prove God. a
fish does it. No wonder that LinnBus and
iCuvier and Agassiz and the greatest minds
lof all the centuries sat enraptured before 1t:
anatomy.