Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-02-15
WEEKDAY SERMON.


BY REV. AGRICOLA GRANGER.
ZECH. XIV, Is.
DEARLY BELOVED 1T will be
expected in my exOrdium that l
follow the usual orthodox custom
of delighting and instructing you
with a Hebrew criticism on the
word translated mule, in the text,
but such is not my purpose. You
will appreciate my forbearance when
l inform you that l am not a Hebra-
ist, and therefore more prone natu-
rally to indulge in giving you my
quotation-dictionary learning. That
Index learning, that turns no student pale,
But holds the eel OF science by the tail"
What if our translators and Rabbis
disagree as to the rendering of ''Ze-
MIN 20 Who cares "a mules a
mule, which brings me right up to
the text.
This animal, without being at all
remarkable for mental capacity,
has, like Falstaff and his confreres;
been the source of much humOr and
wit in others. The unregenerate of
American humOrists spread them
selves over many pages of manu-
script on the peculiarities ofthe mule;
his length of ear, his rasping voice,
like the contact of splinters with a
crOss-cut saw, or the inharmOny of
a certain Church choir, which your
beloved pastor would not dare to
name before this audience; his pro-
pensity to strike out from the rear,
to overcome fences and "eXplOre
green fields and pastures new" es-
peciaIly upon the Sabbath day-ir
short, his general "cussedness" of
behaviour, are themes that often
engage the pen of the humorist, and
always, my dear brethren, to the
utter exclusion of his better quail
ties.
But where would we be without
the mule? Where, agriculturally,
commercially, financially? His la
Dor lies at the foundation of our
prosperity. He is the stay of the
land. Without him we would be
cruelty crippled mall our industries.
Think of this, we lOng-eared bipeds,
who habitually abuse and maltreat
him! Know, that without him,
you could not win the bread and
meat that support your families,
and knowing this, treat him as a
friend should be treated.
How do you treat your mule?
That is the question. Do you lay
upon him burdens that he cannot
bear? Give him loads that he cam
not draw? Do you give him a bed
wheFeOn to rest ? Did you save en-
ough from his hard earnings to save
him from being skinned and Grip
pied on the ice =? Did you cuta hole
in the ice that he might drink? You
need not reply. When / see an au-
dience, with heads hanging down,
I understand-words are not neces-
sary.
Oh, my brethren ga man can
not ride to Heaven on sOre-backed
mule p neither can he escape con-
domination who works him with q
skinned shoulder, or who sells him
after his best days are past to some
inhuman master, who will work
him in pain, in silent suffering, and
lameness, to his buzzard grave! Do
not imagine that there is no MeOL,
or TdrtdruS, or GehennG for the mule
beaten. What saith the Scriptures?
"a merciful man is merciful to his
beast" And "blessed are the mer-
ciful, for they shall obtain mercy"
Now extract the square root of these
twoscriptures, land see where it lands
the impenitent sinner, that am adj
dressing this evening. But the mule
hath no soul, saith the mule-beater.
Neither have you, my cruel, mis-
guided friend, none worth mention
ing. In fact the excuse for a soul
you have will prove serious incon-
venience to you, in view of the inn
pending unpleasantness before you!
Better to beas the beasts that perish
than as the brutes that punish |! Bet
ter to have no soul than be con-
demned to hear the million-voiced |
bray of slowly murdered mules, re-
sounding with rasping hee-haw D.!
all the caverps Of pandemo- /
MUM
Turn from yOurevil ways Think |
Of your mules dumb patience and |
silent suffering. His sire was known
10 speak once, when belabOred with /
he club of a cruel master, but the
mule, our best friend of the race,
suffers and makes no sign! There
ire laws on the statute book against
cruelty to animals but they are not
enforced. The magistrate bears the
sword of justice in vain! But let
Is be a law to ourselves. Let US, as