Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-02-06

the fish part. The top part, which wa
the figure of a man, was dashed to pieces
and the Lord, by dclnolishing every
thing but the stamp Or fish part of IL:
idol, practically said, You my kee1
your fish, bit know from the way l have
| demolished tie rest of the idol that it i.
nothing divine.
| TIE FESELI--E IDOLS.
| Layard and Wilkinson found t'.c Is,
an object of idolatry al through 4 r;;s
ind Egypt. The Nile was full ca fish
and that explains the horrors Of the
| plague that slaughtered the fnny tribe
all up and down that river, which has
been and is now the main artery OF
Egypt's life. In Job you hes4 the plunge
of the spear into the hippopotamus as
| the great dramatic poet cries out, ''Canst
thou fill his skin with barbed irons or his
| head with fish spears?' Yea, the fish be-
gan to swim in the very first book of
Genesis, where my text records, "And
God said, Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that
hath life.''
Do you realize that the first living
thing that God created was the fish? 1t
preceded the bird, the quadruped, the
human race. The fish has priority of
residence over every living thing The
next thing done after God had kindled
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, prin-
ciple that all the thousands of years since
have not been able to define or analyze-
the very first stir of life-was in fish.
What an hour that was when in the
Euphrates, the Gihon, the Pison and the
Hiddekel, the four rivers of paradise,
the waters swirled with fins and bright
ened with scales All the attributes of
the infinite God were called into action
for the making Of that first fish. Lanceo-
late and translucent miracle! There is
enough wonder in the plate of a stur-
geon or in the cartilage of a shark to
confound the scientists. It does not
take the universe to prove God. A
fish does It. No wonder that Linnaus
and Cuvier AID Agassiz and the greatest
minds Of all the centuries sat enraptured
before it's anatomy.
Oh. its beauty and the adaptedness of
its structure to the element in which it
of the mountain trout unveiled as they
spring up to snatch the flies; the gray
ling, called the flower of fishes; the salm-
on, ascending the Oregon and the Sew
ern, easily leaping the falls that would
stop them; the bold perch, the gudgeon,
silver and black spotted; the herring,
moving in squadrons five miles long; the
carp, for cunning called the fox of fishes;
the wondrous surgeons, formerly re-
served for the tables of royal families,
and the isinglass made out of their men,
brane; the tench, called the physician of
fishes, because when applied to human
ailments it is said to be curative; the
la1npreys, so tempting to the epicurean
that too many of them slew Henry Il
aye, the whole world of fishes!
Enough of them floating up and down
the rivers to feed the hemispheres if
every ear of corn and every head of
wheat and every herd of quadruped and
if every other article Of food in all the
earth were destroyed. Universal drought,
leaving not so much as a spear Of grass
on the round planet, would leave i'll the
rivers and lakes and seas for the human
race staple commodity of food which,
if brought to shore, would be enough not
only to feed but fatten the entire human
race.
In times to come the world may be so
populated that the harvests and vine
yards and land animals may be INSULT
cient to feed the human family. and the
nations may be obliged to cone To The
rivers and ocean beaches to sec, the liv-
ing harvcsts that swim the deep, and
that would mean naore health and vigor
and brilliancy and brain than the hui
man race now own.
IMPORTANCE OF PLAIN FOOD.
The Lord, by placing the fish III the
first course Of the menu in paradise,
making it precede bird and beast, indi-
Gated to the world the importance of tire
fish as an article Of human food The
reason that men and women lived three
and four and five and nine hundred years
was because they were kept on parched
corn and fish. We mix up q fantastic
food that kills the most of US before so
years of age. Custards and whipped sill
labubs and Roman punches and chicken
salads at midnight are gantlet that few
have strength to run.
We put on many q tombstone glowing
epithets saying that the person beneath
died Of patriotic services or from ex-
haustion in religious work when moth
ing killed the poor fellow but lobster
eaten at a party four hours after Re
ought to have been sound asleep in bed.
There are men today in our streets So
many walking hospitals who might
have been athletes if they had taken the
hint of Genesis in my text and Of our
Lords remark and adhered to simplicity
of diet.
The reason that the country districts
have furnished most of the men and
women of our time who are doing the
mightiest work IN merchandise, in me-