The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-02-16
GOD AMONG THE FISHES.
TALMAGE DIScOURSES ON THE
iCHTHYoLOGY OF THE BIBLE.
Importance of the Fish as an Art
Gle of f1urna an Food--The Mon
stersof Ancient Days--Bi-
BILE Smiles From the =.
E Fisheries.

BROOKLYN, Special-Dr. TalmadSe
preached an eloquent sermon to-day on
Ichthyology of the Bible, or God
Among the Fishes" being a continual
ton of his discourses on God Every
where" The text chosen was Gene
sis i, 20: "And God said,Let the
waters bring forth abundantly the
moving creature that hath life" y T.:
4 What a new book the Bible is! After
thirty-six years preaching from it
and discussing over 5000 different sub
jects founded on the word of God
the book is us fresh to me as when
I learned, with a stretch of infantile
memory. the shortest verse i'll the
Bible, Jesus wept," and I opened a
few weeks ago a new realm Of biblical
interest that neither my pulpit ncr
nay one else's hand EVER explored,
and having spoken to you in this
course of sermons on God Every
where, concerning the astronomy of
the Bible or God among the Stars, the.
chronology of the Bible of God
among the Centuries, the Ornithology
of the Bible or God among the Birds,
the Mineralogy Of the Bible or Cod
among the Amethysists, this moning
as I may be divinely helped, I 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 We're red with
blood cut out by the rocks, and I could
hardly get my feet out Of the stirrups
as IN Saturday night we dismcunted
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 az
ticles of diet remaining had by oft rep
%etition, three times Il day for three
weeks, ceased to Appetite. l never
want to see a fig again, and dates
with me are all out of date. For sew
eral days the Arab caterer, who cot
speak but half a dozen English words,
would answer our requests for some of
the styles of food with which we had
been dedicated the first few days, by
crying out, "Finished." The most
piquant appetizer is abstinence, and
the damand 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 a profus-
ion of nomenclature, n it is in the
Bible called Chinnereth,, !Tiberias, Cen
~nesareth and Galilee. To our extern
porized table on Sabbath morning
came broiled perch, only a few hours
before lifted ont Of the sacred waters.
It was natural that our minds should
revert to the only breakfast that
Christ ever prepared, and it was on
those very shores where we break
tasted. Christ had, in those olden
times, struck two fints together and
set on fire some shavings or light
brush wood, and then put on larger
wood, and a pile of glowing bright
Goals was the consequence. Mean.
while, the disciples, fishing on the lake,
had awfully poor luck" and every
time they drew up the net it hung
dripping without Il 1uttering fin or
squirming scale. But Christ, from the
shore, shouted to them, and told them
where to drop the net, and 153 big
fish rewarded them. Simon and Ma
thaniel having cleaned some OF the
large fish, brought them to the Goals
! which Christ had kiadlcd, and the
group who had been ont all night and
were chill and wet and hungry sat
down and began masticutiOn. All that
scene came back to 1S when on Sab
bath morning. December, 1885,, just
outside the ruins of ancient liberals,
and within sound of the ripping Call
lee, we br~eaEfastad.
Now, is it not strange that the Bible
imagery is so mwrought from the
fisheries, when the Holy Land is, for
the most part, an inland region? Only
three lakes. two besides the m al
ready mentioned, namely, the Dead
Sea, where fish cannot live at all and
rs, soon as they touch it they die, aud
the birds swoop ON their tiny car
~casses. and the third, the Pools Of
Heshbon, which arc alternately full
and dry. DULY three rivers of the
Holy Land, Jabbok, KiShon and Jor-
ilan. About all the fish now in the
waters of the Holy Land, are the
perch, the carp, the Dream, the min
row, the DA1lny, tue DarDel $50 called
because Of the barb at it's mouth), the
club, the dog fish, none of them worth
a Delaware shad OF an Adirondack
trout. Well, the worlds geography
has changed and the worlds bill of
fare has changed. Lake Galilee was
larger, deeper and better stocked than
now, and no doubt the rivers We're
deeper and the fisheries were Of far
more Importance then than now. Be
side that, there was the Mediter-
ranean sea only thirty-fve miles away,
and SO much of. that article of food
was sold in Jerusalem that a fish mar
ket gave the name to n of the gates
Of Jerusalem near by, and it was called
the Fish Gate. S "
Layard and Wilkinson found the fish
an object of idolatry all through AS.
syria and Egypt. The Nile vas full
Of fish, and that explains the horrors
Of the plague that slaughtered the
fnny tribe all up and down that river,
which has been, and it now, the main
artery of Egypt's life. In Job you
hear the plunge Of the spear into the
hippopotamrS, as the great dramatic
nont orioc ont. tCanst thO1 fill hic