The times., 1897-12-13
FINDS GOD IN THE FISHES
DR.. Talmage DiscOurseS ON the
IchthyOlOgy of the Bible.
FIRST SIGN OF EARTH LIFE
The Finny Tribe as the Second
Course ill the Menu OF Paradise
A Spirited Attack on Modern In
dieestibIe Viands-The Philos-
opby of the Net.

Rev I. Dewitt TaImage delivered the
sixth of his series of sermons on ''God Every
where at the First Presbyterian Church
yesterday morning, his subject being The
"Ichtlyology of the Bible or God among
the fiShcs.' The text was Genesis Xxx,
'And God said, let the waters bring forth
ahundaI t.y the moving creature that hath
life"
DR.. Talrnage spoke in part as follows:
''Isit not strage that the Bible imagery is
50 inwrought from the fisheries, when the
Holy Land is, for the most part, an inland
region:
The worlds geography has changed
Lake Gaiilee was larger and deeper and
bette stock cd than now, and no doubt
the rivers We're deeper and tie fisheries
were OF far more Importance then than
now. Beside that, there was the Med
iterranean Sea only thirt y-five miles away,
and the fish Were salted or dried and
brought inland, and so much Of that
article of food was sold in Jerusalem
that fist market gave the name to one
Of the gates of Jerusalem nearby, and it
was called the Fish Gate.
$50 important was the fish that the
god Dagun, worshiped by the Philistines.
was made half fish and half man, and
that is the meaning of the Lords indig-
nation wien i'll st Samuel we read that
this Dagon, tie fish god, stood beside
the ark of tic Lord and Dagon was by
invisible hands dashed to pieces, because
the PlilIstines had dared to make the
fish a god.
"LayarG and Wilkinson found the fish
an object of idolatry all through Assyria
AUG Egypt. The Nile was full of fish. and
that explains the horrors of the plague
that slaughtered the funny tribe all up aid
down that river, which has been ana is
now the main artery Of Egypt's Hfe. 1t
preceded the bird, the quadruped, the
hun an race. The fish has priority Of
residence over every living thing. The
mex thing done after God had kindled
70; our world the golden chandelier Of the
sun aud the silver chandelier Of the moon
was tC make the fish. The first motion
OF tie principle of life, a principle that all
IN. thousands OF years since have not been
able 10 define or analyze, the very tirst
stir OF life was in a fish TO confound tie
scientists. II does not take the uni
verse To prove a God. A fish does It..
No wonder that Linnaeus and Cuvier and
\ gassiZ ana the greatest minds OF all
the centuries sat enraptured before 'ts
anatomy. Oh, its beauty, and the adapted
ness.
The Lord, b ) placing the fishin the sec
ond course of the menu in paradise, making
! 1t precede beast and bird, indicated TO the
world the cimportanceof the fish asanartic,e
OF hum an food. We mix up a fantastic
food that kills the most Of US before ihirty
years of age. CuStards and whipped silla-
| bulbs al punches and chicken salads
at midnight are a gauntlet that few have
strength tu run. We put on many tomb
| stone eptaphs saying that the one beneath
died of patriotic services OF from eXhaus-
tion in religious work, wien nothing killed
the poor fellow tut lobster eaten al a Iarty
| four hours after hc cug ht 10 have been sound
asleep in bed. No man or woman ever
amounted to anything who was brought up
on floating island or angel cake. The
world must turn back TO paradisaic diet
if it is to get paradisaic morals and para
disaic health. The human race today needs
| more phosphorus.
The fools who become infidels because
they cannot understand the engulfment Of
the reel cant Jonah in sea monster might
have saved their souls by studying a little
natural history. The fishermen think it
best To Keep the useful and worthless Of
the haul in the same net until it is dra wn
upon the beach, and then the division ,akes
| place, and if it is on Long Island coast, the
moss bunkers are thrown out and the blue
| fish and shad preserved, or If it is On
the shore Of Galilee, the fish classified as
| siluroids are hurled back into the wa te-
or thrown up the bank as unclean. While
the perch and the carp and the barbel are
| put in pals, to be carried home for use
SO in the church on earth the saints and
the hypocrites, the generous and the mean,
| tie chaste and the unclean, are kept in the
| same membership, but at ded IL the division
VIII be made. and the good VIII be gather
ed into heaven, and the bad, however maay
| holy communions they may have celebrac ced,
ard however many rhetorical prayers they
my have offered, and however many years
their names may have been on the church
rolls, VIII be cast away. God forbid that
any of US should be among the cast
away"