The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-02-22

CQo human I8mlty, anu Gn9 u6CkOuS ulay DO
obliged to come to the rivers aud ocean
swim the deep, and that would mean more
healh and vigor ani brilliaucy and brain
than the human race now own.
The Lord, by placing the fish In the hrst
course OF the menu in paradise, making 1t
precede bird and beast indicated to the
world the Importance OF the fish as an
article O: human food. The reason that
men and women lived three and four aud
Eve and nine hundred years was because
they were kept on parched corn and fish.
We mix up fantastic food chat kill the
most Of us before thirty years OF age. Gus.
tards and whipped sillabubs and Roman
punches and chicken salads at midnight are
q gautlet that few have strength to run.
We put on many a tombstone glowing
epithets saying that the person beneath died
OF patriotic services or from exha ustion IN
religious work when nothing killed the poor
fellow but lobster eaten at party four hours
after he ought to have besn sound asleep In
bed. There ara msn to o-day In oar streets 80
many walking hospitals who might have
been athletes II they had taken the hint OF
Genesis in nv text and Of our Lords re-
mark and adhered to simplicity Of diet.
The reason that tina country districts have
furnished most Of the men and women OF
our time who are doing the mightiast WORK
in merchandise, in mechanics in law, In
medicine, in theology. In Legislative ana
congressional halls, and all the pr esidents
from Washington down-at least those who
have amounted to anything-is because they
were in those country districts Of necessity
kept ON plain diet.
No man or woman ever amounted 70 any.
thing who was brought up on floating island
Or angel cake. The world must turn back
to paradisiac diet IL 1t Is to get paradisiac
morals and parad saiac health. The human
race to-day needs more phosphorus, and the
hsh Is charged and surcharged with pnos-
phorus-phosphor that which shines IN
the dark without burning.
What made the twelve apostles such stall
wart men that they could endure anything
and achieve everythings Next to divine in
spiration, it was because they were nearly
all fishermen and lived on fish and few
plain condiments. Paul though not brought
up to swing the net and throw the line, must
Of necessity have adopted the diet OF the
population among whom he lived, and you
see the phosphorus In his daring plea before
Felix, and the phosphorus in his boldest OF
ell utterances before the wisacres on Mara
Hill, ana che phosphorus as he went without
YOU see in the lives OF all the apostles who
moved right on undauuted to certain martyr.
dom. whether to be decapitated or flung of
precipices or hung in crucifxion.
Phosphorus shining in the dark without
burning. No man or woman that ever lived
was independent of questions OF diet Let
those who by circumstances are compelled
10 simplicity Of diet thank God for their res.
cue from the temptation Of killing delica.
cies. The men and women who are to de-
eide the drift OF the Twentieth Century,
which is only seven or eight steps of, are
now five miles back from the rail station
bill OF fare to that which Christ provided for
the fisharmen disciples on the banks OF Lake
Galilee.
Indeed the only articles Of food that
Christ by miracle multiplied wsrs bread aud
fish which the boy who acted as sutler to the
1000 persons Of the wilderness hsndei oysr
five barley loaves and two fishes. The
boy must have felt badly when called on to
give up the two fishes which he had brought
ont after having caught them himself, sit
ting with his bare fest over the bank OF the
lake and expecting to sell his supply atgood
profit, but he FELT better when by the mira
Gle the fish were multiplied and he had more
returned to him than he had surrendsrsi.
Know also in order to understand t1s
ichthyology Of the Bible that in the dsspsr
y
were monsters that ara now extinct. Ths
fools who become infdels because they can
not understand the ingulfmsnt Of the recre-
ant Jonah In q sea monster might have
saved their souls By studying little natural
history. sOh," says some one, ''that story
Of Jonah was only fable" Say others:
'sIt was interpolated by some writer OF later
times" Others say: 1T was q reproduc-
ton OF the story OF Hercules dsvoure1 and
then restor ed from the monster" But my
reply is that history tells US that there wers
monsters large enough to whslm ships.
The extinct ichthyosaurus OF other ages
was thirty feet long, and as late as the Sixth
Century Of the Christian era up and down
the Mediterranean there foated monsters
compared with which q modern whale was
a sardine or herring. Tns shark has again
and again been found to swallow q man en-
tire, A fisherman on the coast OF Turkey
found ssa monster which contained wo-
man and a purse Of gold. have seen in
museums sea monsters large enough to take
down q prophet.
But have better reason for believing
the Old Te5tamsnt account, and that Is that
Christ said 1t was true aud typo OF His
own resurrection, and [ suppose He ought
saws, "For as Jonas was three days and
three nights 10 the whales bslly, 80 shall
the Son Of Man bs three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth" And that
settles IL for me ani for any man who doas
not believe Christ a dupe aud an impostsr.
Notice also how the Old Testamsn5 writers
drew similitude from the fisheries. Jeremiah
uses such imagery to prophesy destruction,
"Behold, viii send for many fshera saith
the Lord, and they shall fish them" Ezekiel
uses fish imagery to prophesy prosperity,
ut shall come to pass that the fishers shall
sta,d upon it from Eugedi even to Eneg-
lain; there shall bs place to sprea forth
nets; their fish shall be accor ling to their
many" the explanation Of which Is that
Engedi and Eneglaim stood on the banks
of the Dead sea, in the waters of which
no fish can live but ths prophet says that
the time will come when these waters will
be regenerated, and they will be great places
for fish. Amos reproves idolatries BY say
ing. ''rhs day shall come upon you when
he will take you away with hooks AMI your
posterity with fishhooks." Solomon, IN
Ecclesiastical declares that those captured Of
temptation ara as fishes taken in an evil
net. Indeed Solomon knew all about the
finny tribe and wrote treatise on icnthy.
ology which has been lost.
Furthermore, in order that you may un-
derstand the ichthyology Of the Bible, you
must know that there were FIVE ways OF
fishing. One was by fencs OF reeds and
cane, within which the fish were caught.
But the aerodic government forbade that on
Lake Galilee, less pleasure boats be wrecked
by the stakes driven. Another mode was by
speariug, the waters of Galilee 80 clear good
aim could be taken for the transaxing. An
other was by hook and line, as whore Isaiah
says, "The fishers also shall mourn, and
they that cast angle into the brooks shall
lament" And Job says, "Canst thou draS
out leviathan with q hookT And Habak.
kuk says "They take up all Of them with
the angle"
Another mode was by casting net or