beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom." (1 Kings iv. 32-34.) Solomon's Proverbs, and some of his songs, still remain,-but his Natural History is lost, as I think I have told you before, when speaking of animals. On the fifth day of creation God made fishes and flying fowls. (See Gen. i. 20.) He gave man dominion over them; and, after the flood, permitted him to have many kinds for food. There were some, however, which were to be considered unclean. All that had fins and scales were clean, but those which had not were unclean. A shark would be an unclean fish,-so would also such things as crocodiles, lizards, etc. Of these the Jews were commanded not to eat, for God's people were to live by the rule that He had given them. Fishes, as well as other creatures, in their own way show forth God's glory: "Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this "says Job. "Let the heaven and the earth praise Him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein "-says the Psalmist. Fish has always been an article of food among all nations. The Nile of Egypt abounded with fish, and therefore the first plague of Egypt was sent upon the river. And when the waters were turned into blood, we read,-"The fish that was in the river died." This must have been a great loss, as it was so much used. The Israelites, in their murmurings for food in the wilderness, said to Moses,-"We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely." (Numb. xi. 5.) The people of Tyre brought fish to sell at Jerusalem, in the time of Nehemiah, who says, "There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto all the Children of Judah and in Jerusalem." (Nehem. xiii. 16.) This was very wrong, as it was breaking the Fourth Commandment. There was a gate into Jerusalem called the fish-gate, because there fish was sold. This is alluded to in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14, and also in Zeph. i. 10: “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish-gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills." This refers to God's punishments on Judah for their sins. In the Second Commandment God expressly forbids that the likeness of any fish should be made. The Philistines worshiped a fish-god, called Dagon,-supposed to be half a fish and T half a man. In the temple of Dagon they put the ark of God, when they took it in battle. In the morning when they went into the temple, they found their fish-god had fallen with his face to the earth, before the ark. God would not permit anything so holy to be put near an idol, without showing His greatness. After raising up Dagon, they set him in his place again; but, next morning, they found not only he had fallen, but his head and the palms of his hands were broken: "Only the stump of Dagon Iwas left to him." Thus God had shown the Philistines His power, and that their fish-god could not stand at all before Him The two names of creatures living in the waters, mentioned in the Bible, are the whale and the leviathan. Both, however, are generally thought to mean the same creature, though they are spoken of separately. First I will tell you, in a few words, a little about the whale. It belongs to that class of creatures called mammalia, or those which feed their young with their own milk; for, singular though it is, the whale can do this for her young ones. Of course you know that it is the largest inhabitant of the sea. It is often called a fish, but in reality it is not one: it is a kind of beast of the water, -not a fish at all. Whales, unlike fishes, have warm blood: neither can they live for a long time in the water, but constantly require to come up to the surface to breathe the air. They are enormous creatures: in some, the tail is not less than twenty-feet long. It must be a grand sight to see these huge creatures spouting up water, like a fountain, into the air, or lashing the sea into a foam with their huge tails. Whales, though so powerful, are not fierce creatures, like the sharks. They have not powerful teeth, and do not feed on flesh, as do the sharks. From their huge jaws is taken that useful article called whalebone; and from a certain kind of whale, called the sperm-whale, a valuable oily substance is procured, called spermaceti, which is much used for healing ointment. Their blubber, or fat, is of great value, as it is made into oil; and it is for this oil the whale is so much sought. One whale's body will often yield as much as twenty tons of pure oil. Whale-fishing is a very dangerous employment. Many hardships the poor mariners have to undergo. Sometimes the whale will upset their boats, and plunge the unfortunate men into the water. Then, again, their vessels often get fastened in between huge icebergs,—those frozen mountains, so large and dangerous. Sometimes for years they are thus enclosed, and if they have not provisions to last for a long time, they are starved to death. Many brave men have thus lost their lives; we hope, however, that as they have had time to think of what was before them, they died trusting in Jesus Christ. There are many different kinds of whales, of which it is interesting to read, and I hope you will do so when you have an opportunity. I should think you have all heard of Jonah,-how he was swallowed by a whale. Some people say it was a shark, or another kind of fish; but Jesus mentions it as a whale. (See Matt. xii. 40.) |