Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-02-17
REV. DIX. TAlMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's sun.
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT :-"GOD AMONG THE FIsE
ERs.m

thirty-siI years preaching from it and dis
cusslng over 30l0 different subjects fouudec
on the word Of God, the book Is as fresh x
me as when learned, with stretch of in.
fantile memory, the shortest verse in the
Bible, Jesus wept" and | opened few
weeks ago new realm of Biblical interest
that neither my pulpit nor any one else:
had ever explored, and having spoken tc
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; or, God Among
the Centuries" the "Ornithology OF the
Bible; or, God Among the Birds" the
"Minerslogy of the Bible; or God Among
the Amethysts," this morning, as [ may be
divinely helped, will speak to you about
the "lchthyology of the Bible. or, God
Among the Fishes"
Our horses were latherei and tire out,
and their fetlocks were red with the blood
cut out by the rocks, aud could hardly get
my feet out OF the stirrups as ON Saturday
night We dismoulted on the beach Of Lake
Galilee. The rather liberal suppy 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 day for three weeks ceased to appe-
tie. l never want to see fig again, aud
dates with me are all out of date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 delec-
tated the first few days by crying out "Fin.
ished." The most piquant appetizer is ab-
stinance, and the 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 1t is worth aprofusion OF nomen-
clature, and 1t is in the Bible called Chin
nereth. Tiberias Gennesareth and Galilee.
To our eItemporizsd table on Sabbath
morning came broilsd 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 1t was on those very shores where
we breakfaste1. Christ had in those oldsD
times struck two fiiuts together and sat on
fire some shavings or light brush wood and
then put on larger wood, and pile OF glow.
ing bright Goals was the consequence.
Meanwhile the disciples fishing on the lake
had awiully poor luck" and every time
they drew up the net it hung dripping with
out huttering fin or squrming scale. But
Christ from the shore shouted to them and
told them where to drop the net, and 1853 big
fish rewarded them. Simon and Nathaniel,
having cleaned some of those large fish,
brought them TO the Goals which Christ had
klndled, and the group who had been out all
night and were chill and wet and hungry,
sat down and began mastication. All that
scene came back to us when on Sabbath
morning, December. 1889, just outside the
RUNS or ancient Tissrias and within sound
OF the rippling Gailee. we breakfastsd.
NOW, 1t is not strange that the Bible i'm
agery is so inwrought from the fl ,heriss
when the Holy Land is for the most part,
an inland region? Only three lakss-two b.
sides the one already msntionei-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
alternately full and dry. Only thres rivers
If the Holy Land-Jabbok, Kishon aud Jor-
an.
About all the fish now Ia the waters OF the
Holy Land are the perch, the carp, the
Dream, the minnow, the blsnny, tho bsrbsl
$50 called because OF the barb at its mouth,
the club, the dogfish, none Of them worth a
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 bet
ter 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 Mediterranean
Tea only thirty-fve miles away. and fish
were salted or dried and brought inland,
and so much of that article Of food was sold
in Jerusalem that n 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 Gibeon
was 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, riug having been run through
their gills and that is the meaning OF the
Scripture passage which says, "Canst thou
put hook into his nose or bore his Jaw
through with thorn"
So important was the fish that the god
Dasop, worshipei by the Philistines, was
made half fish and half man, and that is the
meaning OF the Lords Indignation when In
! Samuel we read that this Dason, the fish
god, stood beside the ark OF the Lord, and
Dagon was by invisible hands dashed to
pieces because the Philistines had dared to
make the fish a god. That explains the
Scripture passage, "The head Of Dagon and
both tho palms of his hands were cut Off 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
the figure of man, was dashei to pieces,
and the Lord, by demoishing every thing
but the stump or fish part of the idol, prsc-.
tically said, "You may keep your fish, but
know from the way l have demolished the
rest of the idol that it is nothing divine"
Lsyard and Wilkinson found the fish an
object Of idolatry all through Assyria and
Egypt The Nile was full of fish, and that
explains the horrors of the plague that
l. . tlo a. trih oil
that river, which has been and is now the
main artery of Egypts life. In job you
hear the plunge OF the spear into the hip
popotamus as the great dramatic post cries
out, "Csnst thou fill his skin with barbed
irons or his head with fish spsarsp 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 abundA
antly the moving creature that hath life"
Do you realize that the first living
thing that God created was the hshP 1t
preceded the bird, the qusdruped, the
human race. The fish has priority OF resi-
dence over every living thing. The next
thing done after God had kindlsd 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 able
to define or aualyze-the very first stir o
life-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 brightsnei with
scales. All the attributes OF the minute
God were called into action for the msking
OF that first fish. Lsnceolate and trauslu
cent miracle There is enough wonder IL
the plate OF a sturgeon or in the cartilage ol
a shark to confound the scientist. lt doe
not take the universe to prove doi.
tsh does it. No wonder that Linu@us ant
Cuvier and Agassiz and the greatest mlnd
Of all the centuries sat enraptursd before 1t
anatomy.
Oh, its beauty aud the adaptedness OF IL
structure to the element in which 1t mus
live: the picture gallery ON the sides Oh tn
mountain trout unveiled as they spring vi
to snatch the flies; the grayling, called tins
flower Of fishes; the salmon, ascsnilng TN
oregon and the Severn, easily lsaping tn
falls that would stop them; the bold perca
the gudgeon. silver AMI black spotted; tn