Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-01-06

down that river which has been and Is
now the main artery Of Egypt's life. The
fish has priority OF residence over every
quadruped, the human race. The next
thing done after God had kindled for our
world the golden chandelier of the sun,
and tho silver chandelier of the moon,
was to make the fish. The first motion of
the principle Of life, principle that all
the thousands ofy years since have not been
able to define or analyze, the very first
stir of life was in the fish to confound the
scientists. 1t does not take the universe to
prove God. A fish does it. No wonder
that Linnaeus and Cuvier and Agassiz and
the greatest minds OF all the centuries sat
enraptured before its anatomy. Oh, its
beauty. and the adaptedness.
The Lord, by placing the fish in the Sec
ond course OF the menu In paradise, maxi
ing 1t precede beast and bird, indicated to
the world the Importance of the fish as
fantastic food that kills the most OF us be-
fore thirty years Of age. Custards and
whipped sillabubs and Roman punches and
chicken salads at midnight are a gauntlet
that few have strength to run. We put on
many tombstone epitaphs saying that
or from exhaustion in religious work,
when nothing killed the poor fellow but
lobster eating at a party four hours after
he ought to have been sound asleep in bed.
No man or woman ever amountedto any,
thing who was brought up on floating
island or angel cake. The world must turn
back to paradisaic diet If it Is to get para
disaic morals and paradisaic health. The
human race to-day needs moro phosphorus,
and the fish Is charged and surcharged
with phosphorus, Phosphorus that which
shines in the dark without burning! What
made the twelve Apostles such stalwart
men that they could endure anything and
SQchiaVA arvthipO2 Neyt n diyipn IN cpir-
alton, 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 lash, must
OF necessity have adopted the diet Of the
population among whom he lived, and you
see the phosphorus in his daring plea be-
fore Felix, and the phosphorus in his bold
est Of all utterances before the wiseacres
on Mars Hill, and the phosphorus as he
went without fright to his beheading, and
the phosphorus you see In the lives OF all
the apostles, who moved right on undaunted
capitated 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 ques-
tions Of diet. Napoleon lost one of his
great battles through an attack ofindiges-
tion. The cook in kitchen, or encamp-
ment, has decided many of the great bat
ties.
The fools who become infidels because
they cannot understand the engulfment of
the recreant Jonah in n sea monster might
have saved their souls by studying a little
''that story Of Jonah was only q fable"
Say others, "It was interpolated by some
writer OF later times" Others say, cit was
reproduction Of the story of Hercules de-
voured and then restored from the non
Rter" But my reply is that history tells
,tcf baff fhar la,,
to whelm 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
hoated monsters compared with which u
modern whale was sardine or a herring.
The shark has again and again been found
TO have swallowed man entire. fisher
man on the coast OF Turkey found a sea
monster which contained woman and q
purse of gold. l have seen in museums sea
monsters large enough to take down q
prophet. But have better reason for
believing the Old Testament account, and
that is that Christ said it was true and a
type of His own resurrection, and I sup
pose He ought to know. In Matthew Kill,
40, Jesus Christ says: For as Jonas was
three days and three nights in the whales
belly, 20 shall the Son of Man be three days
and three nights in the heart Of the earth"
And that settles 1t for me and for any man
who does not believe Christ dupe and an
imposter.
God help rs amid the Gospel Fisheries,
whether we employ hook or net, for the
day cometh when we shall see how much
depended on our fidelity. Christ himself
declared: 1.-THE kingdom of heaven is like
unto net that was cast into the sea and
gathered Of every kind, which, when it was
full, they drew to shore, and sat down and
gathered the good in the vessels, but cast
the bad away; so shall 1t be at the end of
the world the angels shall come forth and
separate the wicked from the Just" Yes.
the fishermen think it best to keep the use-
full and worthless of the haul in the same
net until it is drawn upon the beach, and
then the division takes place, and II It is on
Long Island coast, the moss-bunkers are
thrown out and the blueflsh and shad pre-.
served; or, II 1t is on the shore of Galilee.
the fish classified as siluroids are hurled
back into the water or thrown up the bank
as unclean, while the perch and the carp
and the barbel are put in pals to be car.
ried home for use. So in the church on
earth, and the saints and the hypocrits, the
generous and the mean, the chaste and the
but at death the division will be made, and
the good will be gathered into heaven and
the bad, however many holy communions
they may have celebrated, and how many
rhetorical prayers they may have offered,
and however many years their names may
nave pocu On tue cuuEcu Tolls, Will Dc cast
away. God forbid that any OF us should be
among the least away" But may we do
our work. whether small or great, as thor
oughly as did that renowned fisherman,
Rev. DR.. George w. Bethune, who spent his
summer rest angling in the waters around
the Thousand Islands, and beating at their
own craft those who piled it all the year,
and who, the rest of his time, gloriously
Christ to the people Of Philadel-
phia or Brooklyn, and ordering for his own
obsequies: clay me out in my pulpit
gowns and bands, with my own pocket
Bible in my right hand Bury me with my
mother, my father and my grandmother,
Graham. Sing also the hymn I
composed years ago:
Jesus, Thou Prince of Life, J
Thy chosen cannot die.
Like Thee they conquer in the strife,
To reign with Thee on high"