Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-02-06
GOD AMONG THU FISHES.
REV. DR.. TAL1AGgS TABERNACLE SERMON
YESTERDAY.
Ths Ieahyology Of the Bibls-An Interesting
Gospel Lesson Opening New Realm Of
Biblical Exploration.

BROOKLYN, February 3, 1S93.-Rev.
7. Dewitt Talmage this morning
preached 20 a great audience IA tue
Tabernacle, remarkably interesting
and ELOQUENT sermon on The lchtny-
oloey Of the Bible, or God among the
Fishes, -" being a continuation OF his Sc
ries of discCurses on "God Every
where" The text chosen was Genesis
1:2O: "And God said, Let the waters
bring forth abuudantly the moving crea-
ture that hath life"
What a new book the Bible is! After
thirty-Six years preaching from 10 ana
discussing over three thousand different
subjects founded on the Word OF God,
the Book Is as fresh % me IS when 1
learned, with a stretch OF iuIantlle
memory, the shortest verse 10 the BiOle,
"Jesus wept," and Iopened few weeks
ago a new realm OF biblical interest
that neither my pulpit nor any one else'S
had ever explored, and having SPOKEN
10 you In this course OF sermons on GOd
EveryWhere concerning the Astronomy
OF the Bible or God among the Stars,
the Chronology OF the Bible or God
among the Centuries, the ORTHODOXY OF
the Bible or God among the Birds, the
Mineralogy OF the Bible or God among
the Amethysts, this morning as / may
be divinely helped. will speak 10 you
about the Ichthyo.0gy Of the Bible or
God among the Fishes.
OUR HORSES WERE LATHERED
"a . "A .L,fr FotIocl-s yya~p
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 supply or
food with which we had started from
Jerusalem was well nigh exhausted,
and the articles Of diet remaining had,
bv Oft repetition, three times day Tor
three weeks, ceased 10 appetite. /
never want 10 see a fig again, and dates
with me are ali out Of date. For sew
eral DAYS the Arab caterer, who could
speak but half dozen English words,
would answer out requests for some or
the STYLES of food with which we had
been deleCtated the first few days, by
CRYING out, Finished. The most
piQuant appetizer is abstinence, 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, aud Ii is worth a
profusOn of nomenclature, and 10 is In
the Bible called Chinnereth, Liberals,
Gennesareth and Galilee. To our eX-
temDOrized table on Sabbath morning
came brOiled perch, only few hours
before lifted out OF the sacred waters.
II was natural that our minds should
revert 90 the only breakfast that Christ
ever prepared, and il was on those very
shores where we breakfasted. Christ
had. in those Oldsa times, struck two
fints together and set on fire some shaw
ings or light brushwO0d, and then put
onDISTger wood, aud pile OF glowing
gght Goals was the consequence.
meanwhile, the disciples, fishing on the
lake, had awluliy "p0or luck" and
every time they drew up the net il hung
dripping without a tluttering fin or
sQuirming scale. But Christ, from the
shore,
SHOUTED TO THEM,
and told them where 10 drop the pct,
and one hundred and tiity-three big fish
rewarded them. Simon and Nathaniel
having cleaned some OF those large fish,
brought them % the Goals which Christ
had kindled, and the group who had
been out all night and were chill and
wet and hungry, sat down and began
mastlcation. AN that scene came back
70 US when on Sabbath morning, Decem-
Der, 1889, just outside the ruins Of an
cient Liberals aud within sound Of the
ripping Galllee, we breakfaSted.
Now, is IL 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
mentioned, namely, the Dead Sea,
where FISH cannot live at all and as
soon as they touch 10 they die, and the
birds sWOOp on their tiny carcasSes, and
the third, the Pool of HeshbOn, which
are alternately full aud dry. Only
three rivers of the Holy Land, JabbOk,
Kishon and Sordan. About all the hsh
now IN the waters Of the Holy Land are
the perch, the carp, the Dream, the
mlnnOw, the bieuny, the barbel $50 call
ed because OF the barb at its mouth
the club, the dOg-tsh, none OF them
worth a Delaware shad or an Adiron-
dack trout. We'll, the worlds geOgra-
ply has changed and the worlds bill of
fare has changed. Lake Gali,ee was
larger and deeper and better stocked
than now, and no doubt the rivers were
deeper aud the fisheries were OF far
more Importance then than now. Be
sides that, there was.
TEE MEDITERRANEAN SEA
only thirty-Gye miles away. and fish
were sailed or dried and brought in
land, and so much of that article OF
food was sold in Jerusalem that FISH
market gave the name 20 one Of the
gates Of Jerusalem near by, and it was
called the Fish Gate. The cities had
great reservoirs, in which fish ware kept
alive and bred. The pool OF Gideon
was q fish pool. Isaiah and solomon
refer 70 fish pools. Large fish were
kept alive and tied fast by ropes to
stake 10 these reservoirs, ring having
been run through their gils, and that is
the meauing of the Scripture passage
which says. ''CanSt thou put hook
into his nose or bore his jaw
through with c thorn?" So i'm
portant was the fish that the god DagOu
worshiped by the Phislistines, was made
half fish and half man, aud that is the
meaning OF the Lords indignation,
when in LIST Samuel we read that this
DagOn. the fsh-god. stood beside the
ARK Of the Lord, and DagOn was by in
visible hands dashed TO pieces, because
the Philistines had dared 70 make the