The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-09-27
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
The Weekly Discourses of the Great
Brooklyn, Preacher.
Subject: ''Fhe Deer Hunt"

wdter brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee,
o God. Psalm, xiii. l.
David, who must sometime have seen a
heer hunt, points US here to hunted stag
making for the water. The fascinating
animal called in my text the hart is the
same san" animal that in sacred and profane
literature is called the stag, the roebuck, the
hind, the gazelle, the reindeer. In Central
ilyria in Biole times there were whole pasture
heds OF them. as Solomon suggests when he
mys: II charge you by the kinds of the
field" Their antlers jutted from the long
who has been long in John Browns
track" will wonder that in the Bible they
we're classed among clean ANIMALS for the
dews, the showers the lakes washed them as
clean as the sky When Jacob, the patriarch,
longed for venison, Esau shot and
brought home a roebuck Isaiah COM
pares, the sprightliness of the restored
CT pple of miilennial time to the long
and quick jump Of the stag, saying:
"The lame shall leap as the hart" Solo
mon expressed his disgust at hunter
who having shot a deer is too lazy
to cook it, saving: THE slothful
man roasteth not that which he took in
hunting" But one day David, while far
from the nome from which he had been
driven, and sitting near the door of lonely
cave where he had lodged, and on the banks
of pond or river, hears pack of hounds in
swift pursuit. Because of the previous silence
of T. e forest tine cldngor startles him, and he
says to himself: ~ wonder what thos. dogs
are after" Then there is crack ng
in the brushwood, and the loud breath
ing of some rushing wonder of the wools
and the ant ers Of deer rend the leaves
OF the thcket, and by an instinct
which all hunters recognize, plunges into
pond or lake or river to cool its thirst, and
at the same time by its cal acitv for swifter
and longer swimming, to get away from the
forming barriers David says to himself:
AHA, that is myself! Saul after me, Alb
sa'om after me, enemies without number
after me, am chased, their bloody muzzles
at my heels, barking at my good name,
barking after my body, barking after nv
soul. Oh, the hounds, the hounds But
look there" says David, that reindeer
has splashed into the water. 1t puts its hot
lips and nostrils into the cool wave that
washes tie lathered hanks, and it swims away
from the fiery CANNES, and it is free at last
On, that might find In the deep, wide lake
my pursuers! Oh, for the waters of life and
rescue! AS the hart panteth after the water
God"
Ihave just come from the Adrondacks and
the breath of the balsam and spruce and
pine is still On me. The Adrondacks are
now populous with hunters, and the deer are
being slain by the score. Talking few days
ago with a hunter thought would like to
see whether my text was accurate in its al
lusion, md as heard the dogs baying little
way OIL and supposed they were on the track
of reindeer, | said to the hunter in rough
make for the water er' when u'' they gi"aTs are
pursued" He said: 20, yes, Mister, you
see they are a hot and thirsty animal, and
they know where 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 cellar shell boat or stand by the
runway with rifle loaded ready to blaze
away" My friends, that is one reason why
like the Bible SO much-its illusions
are SO true to nature. Its partridges
are real partrdges, its ostriches
real ostriches, and its reindeer real
! glory of the text makes the hunters eye
| sparkle and his cheek glow and his respra-
ton quicken. To say nothing Of its useful
ness, although 1t is the most useful of all
game, its flesa delicious, its skin turned into
human apparel, its sinews fashioned into bow
strings, its antlers putting handles on cut
| lery, and the shavlngs of its horns, used as q
restorative, taken from the name Of the hart
and called hartshorn. But putting aside its
usefulness, this enchani ing creature seems
made out of gracefulness and elasticity.
What an eye, with liquid brightness as If
gathered up from hundred lakes of sunset!
| The horns, a cOronal branching into every
| possible curve. and after it seems done, adj
| vancing into other projections of exquisite
ness tree of polished bone, uplifted in pride,
or swung down for awful combat. It is veloci-
ty embodied. Timidity impersonated. The en-
chantment of the woods. Eve lustrous in life
and pathetic in death. The splen lid animal
| complete rhythm of muscle and bone and
color. and attitude, and locnmoton, whether
couched in the grass among the shadows, OF
living bot shot through the forest, or
turning at bay tD attack the hounds, or rear
ing for its last fall under the buckshot of the
trapper. 1t is splendid appearance that
the, pa-:er's pencil fails to ketch, and only
a hunters dream on pillow Of hem
lock at the foot of St Regis is
able to picture. When twenty miles from
any settlement it comes down at eventide to
the lakes edge to drink among the lily pods,
and. with its sharp-edged hoof, skaters the
crystal of ong AXE, it is very picturesque.
But only when, after miles of pursuit. with
heaving sides and lolling tongue, and eyes
swimming in death the stag leaps from the
| cliff INTO Upper Saranac, can you realize
how much David had suffered from his
troub es, and how much he wanted God when
he expressed himself in the words of the text
las the hart panteth after the water brooks,
50 panteth my soul after Thee, o God"
Well. now, let all those who have coming
after them the lean hounds of poverty or the
black hounds of persecution, or the spotted
hounds of vcissitude, or the pale hounds OF
DEATH or who are in any wise pursued, fly to
the wide, deep, glorious lake of divine solace
and rescue. The most of the men and women
whom happen to know, at different times, il
not now, have had trouble after them, sharp
muzzled troubles, swift troubles, all
devouring troubles. Many Of you have
made the mistake of trying to fight
them. Somebody meanly attacked you
and you attacked them; they deprecated
you, yon deprecated them: or they over
reached you in a bargain, and you tried, in
wall street pir.ance, to get a corner on them;
or yon have had bereavement, ani instead
of being submiss We, you are fighting tina,
bereavement; you charge on the doctors who
failed to effect cure; or you charge on care
lessness of the railroad company through
which the accident occurred; or you are 9
chronic invalid, and you fret ant
worry and scod and wonder why
you cannot be we'll like others
and you angrily charge on the neuralgia OF
the laryngitis or the ague or the sick head
ache. The fact is you are deer at bay. In
stead Of running to the waters of divine con
ISOLATION. and slaking your thirst and cooling
your body and soul in the good cheer Of the
Gospel, and swimming away into mighty
deeps of Gods love, you are fighting who'll,
kennel of barriers. A few days ago
/ saw in the Adirondacks a dog ly-
ing across tne scad, and ne seemed un
able to get up, and l said to some
hunters near by: "What is the matter will
chat dogf They answered: "a deer hurt
him." And l saw that he had a great swollen
Jaw and battered head, showing where the
antlers struck him. And the probability is
that some of you might give a mighty clip to
vonr pursuers, you might damage their busi
ness, you might worry them into ill-health,
you might hurt them as much as they have
hurt you, but, after all, it is not worth
while You only have hurt hound
Better be off for the Upper Saranac,
into which the mountains of Gods eternal
strength look down and moor Their shadows
As for your physical disorders, the worst
strychnne you can take is fretfulness, and the
lest medicine is religion. know people who
were only little disordered,ye have fretted
themselves into complete vaetud lnarinsm,
while others pnt their trust in God and
came up from the very shadow oi
death, and have lived comfortably twenty
five years with only one lung. A man W tt
one lung, but Col with hun, is better oa
than a goddess man with two lungs. Some
Of you have been for a long time sailing
around Cape Fear when yoI ought to have
been sailing around Cape Good Hope Dc
not turn back bus go ahead The deer will
accomplish mora with its swift feet thar
with its horns.
saw whole chains Of lakes in the Adiron