The Russellville Democrat., 1888-09-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Hunting Scene in the Adirondacks
 Furnishes Theme.
As tbe Stag is Pursu cd by the Hounds, So fs Mankind Beset by Tom ptations and Transse@ -- The Df-
 vino Soiace.

As the Stag Is Pursued by the Hounds, So is Mankind Beset by Temptations and Tren,re% The Di- vino soiace.
 Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached the following sermon in the Brooklyn Tab ernacle at the opening service after his return from his summer vacation. Ills ext was:
 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, God. -Psaim xiii, 1.
 David. who must some time have seen a deer-hunt points us here to huated stag making for the water. The fascinat- | ing animal called in my text the hart IS the same animal that in sacred ana pro fame literature is called the stag the roe buck, the hind, the gazelie, the reindeer. In Central Syria, in Bible times tnere were whole pasture fields of them, as Solomon suggests when he says: charge you by the binds or the neid. Their antlers jutted from the long gras | as they lay down. No hunter who mas been long in "John Browns tract' will wonder that in the Bible they wore chased among clean animals, for the
  | as clean as the sky.
 When Jacob, the Patriarch, longed for yenison Esau shot and brought home roebuck. Isaiah compares the sprig hth- : | ness of the restored cripple of millennial | times to the long and quick jump Of the | stag, saying: 'The lame shall leap as | the hart" Solomon expressed his dis | gust at a hunter who having shot deer | Is too lazy to cook 1t, saying:
 .'The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting"
 | But one day David. while far from the 1 home from which he had been driven, | and sitting near the door of lonely cave 1 where he had lodged and on tho ban ks or | a pond or river, hears pack ot hounds l in swift pursuit. Because of the previous | silence of the forest the clangor startles | him, and he says to himself: T wonder what these dogs are after" Then there | is a cracking in the brushwood, and the l loud breathing of some rushing wonder 1 of the woods, and the antlers of deer l rend the leaves of the thicket and by an l instinct which all hunters recogniz l plunges into a pond or lake or river to 1 cool it's thirst and at the same time, by | it's capacity for swifter and longer swim- ming, to get away from the foaming har- riers. David says to himself:
 | "Aha, that is myself! Saul after me, | Absalom after me, enemies without num- | bor after me- am chased, their bloody muzzles at my heels, barking I at my good name. barking after | my soul. Oh, the hounds, the hounds But look there," says David, that rein 1 deer has splashed into the water It puts l it's hot lips and nostrils into the cool way | that washes the Iathered Hanks, and 1t l swims away from the fiery canines, and 1t | is free at last Oh, that might ind In l the deep, wide lake of Gods mercy and l consolation escape from my pursuers. | Oh. for the waters of life and rescue! As | the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, o God" have just come from the Adirondack | and the breath of the balsam and spruce and pine is still on me. The Adiron . | dacks are now populous with hunters and the deer are being slain by the score. Talking few days ago with e hunter l thought would like to see whether my | text was accurate in its allusion, and as heard the dogs paying little way oil and supposed they were on the track of a reindeer, said to the hunter in rough corduroy:
 DO the deer always make for the water when they are pursued?"
 He said:
 70, yes, Mister, you see they are hot and thirsty animal and they know wher | the water Is, and when they hear danger in the distance they lift their antlers and snuff the breeze and start for the Racquet or Loon or Saranac, and we get into our cedar shell boat or stand by the run away' with rife loaded ready to blaze away"
 My friends, that is one reason why like the Bible so much-its allusions are so true to nature. Its cartridges are real cartridges, it's ostriches real ostriches, and it's reindeer real reindeer. I do not wonder that this antlered glory of the text makes the hunters eye sparkle and his cheek glow, and his respiration quick en. To say nothing of it's usefulness, although 1t is the most useful of all game, its flesh delicious, its skin turned into human apparel, it's sinews fashioned into bow-strings, it's antlers putting handl es on cutlery, and the shavings of it's horns used as restorative, taken from the name of the hart and called hartshorn,
 But putting aside it's usefulness, this en
 chanting creature seems made out oi
 gracefulness and elasticity. What ar eye, with liquid brightness, as if gath
 cred up from hundred lakes of sunsetl The horns, coronal branching into every
 possible curve, and, after 1t seems done, advancing into other pro-
 iections of exquisiteness, tree oi
 polished bone. uplifted in pride
 or swung down for awful combat
 It is velocity embodied Timidity i'm
 personated. The enchantment of the
 woods. Eye lustrous in life and pathetic
 in death. The splendid animal a com
 plete Thy thm of muscle, and bone, and
 color, and attitude, and locomotion,
 whether couched in the grass among the
 shadows, or a living bolt shot through tho
 forest, or turning at bay to attack tho
 hounds, or rearing Tor it's last fall under
 the buckshot of the trapper. It Is splen'
 did appearance that the painters pencil
 fails to sketch, and only hunters dream
 on a pillow of hemlock at the foot of St
 Regis is able to picture. Then. twenty
 miles from any settlement it comes down
 at eventide to the lake's edge to drinl
 among the lily pads, and, with it's sharp
 edged hoof, shatters the crystal of Long
 lake, 1t is very picturesque. But only
 when, after miles of pursuit, with heav
 ing sides and lolling tongue and eyei
 swimming in death, the stag leaps from
 the cliff into Upper Saranac. can you re
 alize how much he wanted God when ht
 expressed himself in the words of tn,
 text:
 As the hart panteth after the water brooks
 so panteth my soul after Thee,o, Goo.
 We'll, now, let all those who have com
 ing after them the lean hounds of power
 ty, or the black hounds of persecution, O
 the spotted hounds of vicissitude, or tn
 pale hounds of death, or who are in an
 wise pursued, fly to the wide, deep, glori
 ous lake of Divine solace and rescue. Tn most of the men and women whom hap ] pen to know, at different times, If no
 now, have had trouble after them, sharp muzzled trouble, swift troubles, all de
 vouring troubles. Many of you hay
 made the mistake of trying to fight them | Some bodv meanly attacked you and yo