Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1873-02-05
DIGNITY OF THE SUBJECT,

Beneath the dignity of the pulpit
is my injunction to-day? 1 think
God can be worshiped, not only in
an old building; at a stone altar, with
robes and candles, bowings and kneel-
Ings, the water and the wine, but in
ali his works and the least Of his crea-
tures,-in a fiy's wing; in the, by
turns, emerald and ruby neck of a
dove; in fish's fin; the gold and Jet
bands of a beetle; the instructive mo-
tions of an antor bee; or the structure
of a horses hoof, which is the most
marvellous textureof elastic bone and
and gristle, q world of wisdom in that
little space, to strike the earth or rock
every second with the weight Of ton
with firm yielding and recovery, to
carry a lady without jolting on his
back, and bear vehicle and occupant
swift to the goal. He deserves a rep
resentatiOn. Let me be his represen.
tative, and speak his plea for him =
The horse is my client, paying be-
forehand his fee. If you object to his
case, you are afraid of his rights,
thinking only of what you call your
own. Thank God, not with barren
puff of affected devotion, but through
his benefits, and the creatures he
makes and gives to serve you. By
what one creature so much as the
horse? Some horse bore you to the
maid of your choice, and her away
with you on your bridal iOurney;sOme
horse takes the invalid, yourself, your
wife, parent, child, into the air for a
tonic to the lungs, brain, nerves
some horse has drawn your dead and
will draw gOis to the burial; a horse
took me to my fathers and mothers
tomb, and back to the house so dark
without their faces, so still without
their voices, gone to be the home of
strangers. We shall all have one ride
at last. Some horse, not only, as
Browning tell us, brought "the good
news to Ghent," but has arrived with
freduent tidings that determined the
fortuner of families, and fate of king
doms. The weight of the horse turn
ed the scale in some Of the critical
engagements in our civil war. An
Arab horse, we read, bore his master,
with his teeth in the swOrd-belt, away
from the cordons of the tent where
his life was threatened. How his
achievements and mans are united
is shown in the equestrian statutes of
Washington, Jackson, Napoleon,
Peter the Great; nay, not less signi-
| icantly in that common ehild's toy "a
tin horse, which your child plays with
in the nursery; and all that has been
spent on him to improve the breed is
not thousandth part of his return of
advantage in the nObler arts of peace,
to which no builder, weaver, trench
-.
de1ing locomotive, with his snorting
of steam, and many-spoked round feet
biting the raj, we were told would take
his place. Not so; it does not SUPER
sede his Office, only multiplies the
needs he alone can supply.
"Eat his own head OFF, does he?-
Our heads would not stand on our
shoulders so flourishing and fair but
for his help, with what poor requital,
often. on our part, because the lower
creatures are partakers of our nature (;
and the worst part of our nature, from
our voluntary action, goes to Them
The anger we dare not vent on our
peer or neighbor we discharge, as q
cannon, on our dog or horse, as scape-
goat of our sins. He has to take the
consequences that belong to Us or
somebody, we being as children that
hit anu thing in their vexation at be-
| ing rated for their faults,-even the
stones in the streets. He partakes our
courage or fear. Any horse, il was
said, would mind Jackson's feeble
hand in his old age.
RELATIONSHIP OF ALL.
Said my friend, "'Tis not only the
seourged, over-vorked, famished, ne
glected, but the best conditioned beasts
that are smit with disease" Yes, /
answer: this Is the mysterious law
for man and beast. to be vindicated in
the eternal course of things, that the
good participate with the bad the
the penalti es of guilt. Society is
solid; strike it on any side, every par
ticle is Jared.
In some sort,-in my Imagination,
in my dreams.-I 90 to Jail and the
gallOWs with the murderer and thief.
How your wife or mine suffers al her
life long from the burglar that neUer
comes! and your daughter from often
ces, we are sorry she hears of, COM
mitted thousand miles away! The
cholera reaches spots where it would
not have sprung up, and sound ami
NAL has a sore throat, only by this
strange sympathy with his kind
while, as q hint, some men and wO-
men have sore throats too, though, \
doubtless, the exempts from epidemic
or contagiOn would commonly be the
most healthy and fairly treated. am
a little proud my own horse has esea-
ped. But as a tumor, sore finger, or
bad humor is the issue Of general dis
order or wrong, the horse Is your I'm
ger, an extension of humanity, aud
his sickness one publishing of human !
sin. The animals are rudiments of
men,-What men have sunk into, or !
may rise up from /; they are men de-
graded, or men are they erdLted.-f
What mirrors, let looking glasses
alone, they are Of our virtues or faultsl /
That painful, akward creature. the |
sLOth, is evidently deteriOrated soul. /
Let US take from them our merited I
rebuke, and in their state and the
terms we are on with them, stand at
our own bar, and find one Of Gods
judgment-seats
Is this pulpit-talk. q minister's sem
timeDtal theory? What means, then
the universal fear we have certainly
and contrived to inspire the
animals with, so that every one of
them suns, flies, climbs, ereeps, scut-
ties away, hides, resembling a leaf
the euttle-fish, like stupid human.
author, in his own ink! We cannot
coax or whistle.a colt or heifer, robin
Or sparrow, 20 come. We are lords
and we have lorded it well Their
blood, as well as that of Zacharias
and Baraehias, shall come on this
! If the miseries of brutes
through our mistakes can teach US our
and kinship with them
the calamity of this disorder will do
more for future mercy than thousand
societies for the prevention of cruelty.
We are akin. 1.-THE males of certain
birds" says Mr.. Darwin, "may oeea-
sionaIIy be heard pouring forth their
ove-song long after the proper time,
,howing that they have either lost or
never gained a mate" o human
over and mourner! does not that
,ome very near your disappointment
,r bereavement, regret and hope?
OUR DEBT.
But, whether the ailing animals
US Of our error oT not, they
nay teach US our debt. BLESSINGS
,rigBten as they take their flightp'