Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-02-09
AT THE TAI
ACI.E.
THE 1cHTHYoLoGY AND OTHER NAT
URAL HISTORY OF THE BIBLE.

oNDQALl \. INV l. iJtf W lit di
mage this morning preached to great au
dience IN the Tabernacle remarkably in
teresting and eloquent sermon on ''Ihe Ieh
THEOLOGY OF the Bible; or. God Among tn,
Fishes" being continuation Of his series
Of discourses on God everywhere. Tn,
text chosen was Genesis i, 90. And God
said. Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creatures that hath life"
What new book the Bible Isl After
81 years preaching from it and discussing
over 8, 900 different subjects founded on the
word of God the book Is as fresh to me as
when learned, with stretch of infantile
memory. the shortest verse in the Bible,
Jesus wept, and | opened a few weeks
ago a new realm of Biblical interest that
neither my pulpit nor any one else's had
ever explored, and having spoken to you in
this course of sermons on God everywhere
concerning the Astronomy of the Bible;
or, God Among the Stars" the "Chronol-
ogy of the Bible: or God Among the Cen
turies;" the ''Ornithology of the Bible; or,
God Among the Birds the ''Mineralogy
Of the Bible: or, God Among the Anne
thysts," this morning. ms may be divinely
helped, will speak to you about the Itch
THEOLOGY OF the Bible; or. God Among the
Fishes"
THE SEA OF MANY NAMES.
Our horses were lathered aud tired out,
md their fetloeks were rcd with the blood
ent ont by the rocks, and ! could hardly
get my feet out of the stirrups rs on Satur-
day night we dismounted on the beach Of
Lake Galilee The rather liberal supply Of
food with which we had started from Jeru-
salem was well nigh exhausted, and the
articles OF diet remaining had, By oft repe-
titiOn three times day for three weeks,
ceased to appetite never want to see a
fig again. and dates with me are all out of
date
For several days the Arab caterer, who
could 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 cry
ing out, Finished The most piquant APP
petizer is abstinence, and the demand of all
the party was Let us breakfast on sun
day morning on fresh fish from Lake Gen
nesareth," for You must know that that
lake has four names, and it is worth pro
f.sion of nomenclature, and il is in the
Bible called Chinnereth, Liberals, Gennesa-
reth and Galilee.
TO our extemporiZed table on sabbath
morning came broiled perch only few
hours before lifted out of the sacred waters.
IL was natural that our minds should re-
vert to the only breakfast that Christ ever
prepared. and it was ON those very shores
where we hreakfasted Christ had in those
olaen times struck two flints together and
set on fire some shavings or light brush
wood and then put on larger wood, and
pile of glowing bright Goals was the con
sequence
Meanwhile the disciples fishing on the |
lake had awfully poor luck" and every |
time they drew up the net it hung dripping |
a futtering fin or squirming scale. |
Bat Christ from the shore shouted to them |
and told them where to drop the net, and |
l53 big fish rewarded them Simon and |
Nathaniel, having cleaned some of those
large fish, brought them to 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 mastica-
tion All that scene came back to us when |
On Sabbath morning, December 1889, just |
outside the ruins of ancient Liberals and |
within sound OF the ripping Galilee, we
breSkfasted.
FISHING A GREAT BIBLE TOPIC.
Now, is it not strange that the Bible i'm
agery is so inwrought from the fisheries
when the Holy Land is, for the most part,
I'D inland regioni Only three lakes, two
besides the one already mentioned-namely
he Dead sea, where fish cannot live at ALL
md as soon as they touch ii they die. and
he birds swoop on their tiny carcasses, and
Re third, the Pools of Heshbon, which are
J f..II 4 fk..ls n. |
II the Holy Land, Jabbok, Kishon and Jor-
lar. About all the fish now in the waters
II the Holy Land are the perch. the carp,
he Dream, the minnow, the blenny, the
iarhel $50 called because of the barb at its
MOUTH, the club, the dogfish, none of
hem worth Delaware shad or an Adiron-
lack trout.
Well, the worlds geography has changed,
md the worlds bill of fare has changed
AXE Galilee was larger and deeper and
,etter stocked than now and no doubt the
vers were deeper and the fisheries were
4 far more Importance then than now.
3esides that there was the Mediterranean
ga only 35 miles away, and fish were salt
d or dried and brought inland, and so
much of that article of food was sold in
jerusalem that a fish market gave the
ame to one of the gates of Jerusalem near
", and it was called the fish gate
The cities had great reservoirs in which
he fish were kept alive and bred The
Pool of Gideon was "a fishpool Isaiah and
solomon refer to fishpools. Large fish were
ept alive and tied fast by ropes to a stake
D these reservoirs, a ring having been run
through their gills, and that is The mean
ne Of the Scripture passage which says,
Canst thou put a hook into his nose or
ore his jaw through with "A thorn
SO important was the fish that the god
)agon, worshiped by the Philistines, was
lade half fish and half man, and that is the
Meaning Of the Lords indignation when in
Samuel we read that this Dagon. the fish
cd. stood beside the ark OF the Lord. and
lagoon was by invisible hands dashed 10
ieces because the Philistines had dared to
lake the fish god That explains the
cripture passage, "The head Of Dagon and
9th the palms of his hands were cut off
pom the threshold; only the stump of Da
on was left to him Now, the stump of
lagoon was the fish part The top part.
rhich was the figure OF "A man was dashed