Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-09-19

spotted MOUNDS OF VlclsSltuQe, OF Ine PAL
hounds of death, or who are in any wis
pursued, fly to the wide, deep, glorious
lake of divine solace and rescue. The mos
of the men and women whom l happen tt
know at different times, if not now, have
had trouble after them, sharp-muzzle6
troubles, swift troubles, all-devouring
troubles. Many of you have made the
mistake of trying to fight them. Somebody
meanly attacked you, aud you attacked
them; they deprecated you, you deprecated
them; or they overreached you in bargain
and you tried, in Wall street parlance, to
get corner on them; or You have had a
bereavement and instead of being submis
sive you are fighting that bereavement; you
charge on the dostors who failed to effect a
cure; or you charge on the carelesness OF
the railroad company through which the
accident occurred; or you are chronic in
valid and you fret and worry and scold and
wonder why you can't be we'll like other
people, and you angrily charge on the neu-
ralgia or laryngitis, or the ague, or the sick
headache. The fact is you are deer at
bay. Instead of running to the waters of
divine consolation, and slaking your thirst
and cooling your body and soul in the good
cheer of the Gospel, and swimming away
a whole kennel of barriers. A few days
ago I saw in the Adirondacks a dog lying
across the road, and he seemed unable to
get up, and I said to some hunters near by:
"What is the matter with that dog?" They
answered "a deer hurt him." But saw
he had greatswollen paw and battered
head, showing where the anklers struck
him. And the probability is that some of
might give mighty clip to your pursuers,
you might damage their business, you
might worry them into i'll health, you might
hurt them as much as they have hurt you,
but after all, it is not worth while. You
only have hurt a hound. Better be off for
the Upper Saranac, into which the noun
tains of Gods eternal strength look down
and moor their shadows. As for your phys
ical disorders, the worst strychnine you
can take is fretfulness, and the best medi-
cine is religion. l know people who were
only little disordered, yet have fretted
themselves into complete valctudinarianism
while others put their trust in God and
came up from the very shadow of death,
and have lived comfortably for twenty-five
years with only one lung. A man with one
lung, but God with him, is better off than
goddess man with two lungs. Some of
you have been for a long time sailing
around Cape Fear when you ought to have
been sailing around Cape Good Hope. Do
not turn back, but 60 ahead. The deer
will accomplish more with its swift feet
than with its horns.
l saw whole chains of lakes in the Adj.
rondacks, and from one height you can see
thirty, and there are said to be over eight
hundred in the great wilderness. So near
are they to each other that your mountain
guide picks up and carries the boat from
lake to lake, the small distance between
them for that reason called a 'tcarry." And
the realm of Gods word is one long chain
of bright, refreshing lakes; each promise a
lake, very short carry between them, and
though for ages the pursued have been
drinking out of them, they are full up to
the top of the green banks, and the same
David describes them, and they seem SO
near together that in three different places
he speaks of them as continuous river,
saying: "There is a river the streams where
of shall make glad the city Of God;;" "Thou
shalt make them drink of the rivers of Thy
pleasures" "Thou greatly enrichest it with
the river of God which is full of water''
But many of you have turned your back
ON that supply and confront your trouble,
and you are soured with your circumstan-
ces, and you are fighting society, and you
are fighting pursuing world, and troubles,
instead of driving you into the cool lake of
heavenly comfort, have made you stop and
turn round and lower your head, and it is
simply antler against tooth. I do not blame
you. Probably under the same circum-
stances would have done worse. But you
are all wrong. You need to do as the REIN
deer does in February and March-it sheds
its horns. The Rabbinical writer's allude to
this resignation of antlsrs by the stag when
they say of man who ventures his money
in risky enterprises, he has hung it on the
stag's horns; and proverb in the far East
tells man who has foolishly lost his for
tune to go aud find where the deer shed his
horns. My brother, quit the antagonism of
your circumstances, quit misanthropy, quit
complaint, quit pitching into your pursuers,
be as wise rs next spring will be all the
reindeer of the Adirondacks. Shed your
horns.
But very many of you who are wronged
of the woodland if in any assembly be-
tween Sandy Hook, New York, and Golden
Gate, San Francisco, it were asked that all
those that had been sometimes badly treat
cd should raise both their hands, and full
response should be made, there would be
twice as many hands lifted as persons pre-
sent-I say many Of you wonld declare:
"We have always done the best%He could
and tried to be useful, and why we should
become the victims of malignment, or in
validism, or mishap, is inscrutable." Why,
do you not know that the finer deer and
the more elegant its proportions, and the
more beautiful its bearing, the more anxi-
GUS the hunters and the hounds are to cap
ture it? Had that roebuck ragged fur and
broken hoofs and an obliterated eye and a
limping gait the hunters would have said:
"Pshaw! don't let US waste our ammuni-
tion on sick deer" And the hounds
would have given few shifts of the track
and then darted off in another direction for
better game. But when they see deer
with antlers lifted in mighty challenge to
earth and sky, and the sleek hide looks as
if it had been smoothed by invisible hands,
and the fat sides enclose the richest pasture
that could be nibbled from the bank of rills
SO clear they seem to have dropped out OF
heaven, and the stamp of its foot defies the
jackshootipg lantern and the rifle, the horn.
and the hound, that deer they will have II
they must needs break their neck in the
rapids. So if there were no noble stuff In
your make up, If you were bifureated no.
GQlD2, yOu WOAO q AO1iOAh AoAAuAO1 ~
would be allowed to go undisturbed; but
the fact that the whole pack is in full cry
after you is proof positive that yon are
splendid game and worth capturing. There.
fore sarcasm draws on you its 'fnest bead. "
Therefore the world goes cunning for you
with it's best Maynard breech-loader. High
est com pliment is it TO your talent, or your
virtue, or your usefulness. You will be as
sailed in proportion to your great achieve
ments. The best and the mightiest being
the world ever saw, had set after him all
the hounds, terrestrial and diabolic, and
they Tapped his blood after the Calvarean
massacre. The world paid nothing to its
Redeemer but bramble and cross. Many
who have done their best to make the world
better have had such a rough time oft that
all their pleasure is in anticipation of the
next world, and they could express their
own feelings in the words of the Baroness
Of Nairn at the close of her long life:
Would you be young again?
So would not /;
One tear of memory given;
Onward I'll HE;
Life's dark wave forded DER.
All but at rest on shore,
Say, would you plunge once more.
With home SO nigh?
"If you might, would you now.
Retrace your way?