Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-02-10

brought out after having caught them
himself, sitting with his bare feet owe"
the bank of the lake and expecting To
sell his supply at good profit, but he
felt better when by the miracle the
fish were multiplied and he had more
returned to him than he had surren-
dered.
Know, also, in order to understand
the ichthyology of the Bible that in
the deeper waters, as those OF the
Mediterranean, there were monsters
that are now extinct. The fools who
become infidels because they cannot
understand the engulfment OF the re-
creant JONAH in a sea monster, might
have saved their souls by study
ing a little natural history. "Oh,"
says some one, "that story of Jonah
was only a fable" Say others, 1T
was interpolated by some writer of
later times" Others say: at was
reproduction of the story of Hercules
devoured and then restored from the
monster" But my reply is that his
tory tells us that there were monsters
large enough TO whela ships. The
extinct ichthyosaurus OF other ages
was thirty feet long, and as late as the
sixth century of the Christian era, up
aud down the Mediterranean there
hoated monsters compared with which
n modern whale was q sardine or a
herring. The shark has again and again
been found to have swallowed n man
entire. A fisherman on the coast
OF Turkey found a sea-monster which
contained a woman and purse OF
gold. have seen in museums sea
monsters large enough to take down a
prophet. But have better reason
for believing the Old Testament ac-
count, and that is that Christ said 1T
was true and a type of his own resur-
rection, and l suppose he ought to
know In Matthew, l2 chapter, 40 verse,
Jesus Christ says: "For as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the
whales belly, so shall the Son of Man
be three days and three nights in the
he art of the earth" And that settles
it for me and for any man who does
not believe Christ dupe and an i'm
poster.
Notice also how the Old Testament
writers drew similitude from the fish
cries. jeremiah uses such imagery To
prophesy destruction: "Behold | will
send for many fishers, saith the Lord,
and they shall fish them" Ezekie
uses fish imagery to prophesy pros
perity: 1T shall come to pass that
the fishers shall stand upon it from En-
gedi even to En-eglaim; they shall be
place to spread forth nets; their fish
shall be according to their Kinds, a.
the fish of the great sea, exceeding
many The explanation of which L.
that En-gedi and En-eglaim stood on
the banks of the Dead Sea, in the
waters of which no fish can live, but
the prophet says that the time will
come when these waters will he regen-
Grated and they will be great places
for fish. Amos reproves idolatries by
saying: 1.-THE day shall come upon
you when he will take you away with
hooks and your posterity with fish
hooks" Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, de-
clares that those captured of tempta-
ton are as fishes taken in an evil net.
Indeed, Solomon knew all about the
finny tribe and wrote a treatise OF
Ichthyology which has been lost.
Furthermore, in order that you may
understand the ichthyology of the
Bible, you must know that there were
five ways of fishing. One was by
fence of reeds and canes, within which
the fish were caught But the He. odie
government forbade that on Lake
Galilee, lest pleasure boats be wrecked
by the stakes driven. Another mode was
by spearing; the waters of Galilee were
so clear, good aim could be taken for
the transfixing. Another was by hook
and line, as where Isaiah says: The
fishers also shall mourn, and they that
astangle into the brooks shall lament
And Job says: 'Canst thou draw out
leviathan with a hook? "And Ha-
Ill 4 ~ h
with the angle" Another mode was
by casting net or that which was
flung from the shore. Another by
thrown from a boat and drawn
through the sea as the fishing
smack sailed on. How wonder
full all this i" inwrought into the Bible
imagery, and it leads me to ask In
which mode are you and fishing, for
the church is the boat and the GospeI
Is the net and the sea is the world and
the fish are the souls, and God addresses
us as he did Simon and Andrew, say
ing: Follow me and will make you
fishers of men," But when is the best
time to fish for souls? In the night,
Peter, why did you say to Christ, ''we
have toiled all the night and have
taken nothing?' Why did you not
fish in the daytime? He replies: You
ought to know that the night is the
best time for fishing" At Tobyhanna
Mills, among the mountains of Penn
sylvania, saw friend with high boots
and fishing tackle, starting out at 9
o. clock at night,an said, "Where are
you going?" He answered.: "Going to
fish" what, in the night?" He
answered, Eyes, in the night" So the
vast majority of souls captured for
God are taken in times of revival in
the night meetings. They might just
as well come at twelve o'clock at noon,
but most of them will not. Ask the
evangelists of olden times, ask Finney,
ask Nettleton, ask Osborn, ask Daniel
Baker, and then ask all the modern
evangelists which is the best time to
gather souls, and they will answer,
THE night; by all odds, the night"
Not only the natural night, but the
night of trouble. Suppose go around
in this audience and ask these Chris
tians when they were converted to
God. One would answer, at was at
the time lost my child by membrane
Gus Group. and it was the night of be-
reavement," or the answer would be,
at was just after / was swindled