The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-06-22
SERMON ON HORSES.
~ Prizes Should be Offered to the
Swiftest Horse.
Betting at Horse Races the Evil Feature
of the Turf.-An Able and
Sensible Discourse.
T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

thou given the horse strength? Hast
thou clothed his neck with thunder?
The glory of Lis nostrils is terrible. He
paweth in the valley and rejOiceth in
his strength. He gOeth on to meet the
armed men. He sayeth among the
trumpets, ha, ha, and he smelleth the
battle afar off, the thunder of the cap
tains and the shouting"
In this summer season, when we have
long columns of intelligence from the
race courses, and the crowds are thTOng-
ing all the watering places to attend
the equine competitions, and there is
lively discussion in all families as to
the right or wrong of these exhibitions
of mettle and speed, and there is heresy
abroad which seems to imply that the
cultivation of horses speed is an in
iquity instead Of a cOmmendable virtue,
a sermon is demanded from every min
lister who desires to guard public morals
on the one side and is not willing to see
an upTighteOus abTidgment of innocent
amusement on the other. shall follow
no sermOnic precedent in this discus
sion, but advance independently what
l Iconsider the Christian and common
sense view of this potent, far reaching
and agitating question of the turf.
There needs areadjustment Of corOnets
among the brute creation. The lion has
for long while been called the king of
beasts. l knock off his crown and give
1t to the horse, in every way nObler,
whether in shape, or spirit, or affection,
or memory, or sagacity, or usefulness.
He is semi-human, and knows how to
reason on small scale. The centaur,
which was half horse and half man, NAV
well suggest that the horse is more than
a beast. In my text Job suggests his
strength, his majesty, his painting
breath, his inpatient paving, his en-
thusiasm for battle. What Rosa Bon
heur did for the cattle, and Landseer for
the dog, Job, with mightier pencil, does
for the horse. Eighty-eight times does
the Bible speak Of him. He is present
in every imposing procession, in every
triumph, and on every great occasion.
1t is evident that Moses, and David, and
Solomon, and Isaiah, and jeremiah, and
Zachariah, and St. John were fond of
the horses. He appeared in much of
their imagery. The red horse meant
war, the black horse famine, the pale
horse death, the white horse victory.
One of the entrances of Jerusalem was
called the hOrse-gate. Good MOrdecai
rides the horse, while wicked Haman
holds the bride. The Church's advance
is compared to company of horses in
PharaOh's chariot" jeremiah cries out:
"HOw canst thou contend with horses?"
Miriam sings: "The horse and his rider
hath he thrown into the sea-" Isaiah
says n6lI uOTS6S IOOIS Bndll De as
flint" st. John sees Christ going forth
cOnQuering and to conquer, seated on a
white horse. In the great parade of
heaven John makes US hear the clatter
of hOOfS on the golden pavement as he
says: "The armies which were in heaven
followed him upon white horses" From
the way horses are beaten, and banged,
and hurt on earth l should not wonder
If there was another state of being for
them where the wrongs done here may
be righted, the horses that John saw, not
SO much fguTative as literal.
Not only does the Bible make a favor
ite of this splendid creature of the fields.
Patriarch and prophet and evangelist,
strOking his sleek and silken hide, and
patting his rounded neck, and tenderly
lifting his eXquisitely constructed hoOf,
and hearing with thrill the champ of
his bit, but many of the greatest natures
have spoken of him in encOmiistic num-
bers. Virgil, in his GeOrgics, almost
plagiarizes from Jobs description in
the text. The Duke of Wellington al
lowed no one irreverently to touch the
war-hOrse Copenhagen, which the Duke
rode without dismounting fifteen hours
at Waterloo, and when Copenhagen died
his master ordered military salute fred
over his grave. John Howard, showing
that he did not eXpend all his kindness
upon the human race, wrote home while
61Ch Ill d ldZdTeGIO, lS chase 0OrS6
gone blind or spOiled?" French Iitera-
ture has hardly more pathetic passage
than the lamentatiOn over the old war
horse Marchegay. You see Walter ScOtt's
fOndness for the horse as in "St. Romans
Well' he orders the girths slackened and
the blankets thrown over the smoking
f1anks. Alexander was overcome with
grief at the death of his charger thirty
years old. Edmund Burke, in the park
at BeacOnsfield, musing over the past,
threw his arms over the worn out horse
OF his dead son Richard and wept on his
neck, the horse seeming to sympathize
IN the pathetic memories. Rowland
Hill, the great English clergyman, was
derlded because he supplicated at family
prayers Tor the recovery of his sick
horse, and, when the animal, contrary
to the decision of the farriers, got we'll,
the prayer did not appear so much of an
absurdity.
What shall 1 say of those who offend
God by the abuse of this divinely honor
ed creature? If Thomas Chalmers felt
called upon in his day to preach SER
mon on cruelty to animals, how much
more need now for such reprehensive
d1scoursep All honor to Henry Bergh,
the chief apostle of the brute creation,
1or Inc mercy he has demanded and
achieved for the king of beasts. man
who owned four thousand horses, and
some say forty thousand, wrote in the
Bible, "a righteous man regardeth the
life of his beast" Sir Henry LaWrence's
treatment of his horse Conrad was beau
fully Christian. He said: 81 take so
much care of him suspect he will die.
That he may come in cool always walk
him the last three or four miles; and,
as L walk myself the first hour, it is in
the middle of the journey l get over the
ground" The Ettrick Shepherd was
right when, in his "Ambrosial Nights"
ne calls the abuse of horse practical
0lasphemy. am not ready to severely
denOunce the doctrine of transmigratiOn
OF souls for the people slash and cut and
gad and whack and welt this splendid
burdens, and giving it rapid transpor
tatiOn, and running for its doctors, and
dragging its plOws, and turning its
tread-mills and dthreshers-such Outrages