The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-10-11
1'ALMAGE's SERMON.
A Hunting Scene in the Adirondacks
Furnishes Theme.
As the Stag is Pursued by the Hounds, So
is Mankind Beset by Temptations
and Troubles = The Df-
vine Solace.

As the Stag is Pursued by the Hounds, So
is Mankind Beset by Temptations
and Troubles = The Di-
vine Solace.
Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage preached the
following sermon in the Brooklyn Tab
ernacle at the opening service after his
return from his summer vacation. His
text was:
AS the hart panteth after the water brooks,
SO panteth my soul after Thee, o God. Psalm
Kill, /.
David, who must some time have seen
deer-hunt points us here to hunted
stag making for the water. The fascinat-
ing animal called in my text the hart is
the same animal that in sacred and pro-
fame literature is called the stag, the roe
buck, the hind, the gazelle, the reindeer.
In Central Syria, in Bible times, there
were whole pasture fields of them, as
Solomon suggests when he says: II
charge you by the kinds of the field. "
Their antlers jutted from the long gras s
as they lay down. No hunter who has
been long in "John Browns tract" viii
wonder that in the Bible they were
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 compares the sprig htli
ness of the restored cripple of millennial
times to the long and quick jump of the
stag, saying: ssThe lame shall leap as
the hart. Solomon expressed his dis
gust at a hunter who having shot a deer
Is too lazy TO cookit, saying:
ssThe slothful man roasteth not that
which he took in huntingn
But one day David, while for from the
home from which he had been driven,
and sitting near the door OF & lonely cave
whore he Ind lodged, and on the banks Of
o pond or river, hears pack of hounds
in swift pursuit Because of the previous
silence of the forest the clangor startles
him. and he says to himself: ST wonder
what these dogs are after" Then there
Is cracking in the brushwood. and the
loud breathing of some rushing wonder
of the woods, and the antlers of a deer
rend the leaves of the thicket 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 capacity for swifter and longer SWIM
ming. to get away from the foaming har-
riers. Dayid says to himself:
Aha, that is myself Saul after me,
Absalom after me, enemies without num-
Dor after me. am chased, their bloody
muzzles at my heels. barking
ct my good nams. barking after
my soul. Oh, the hounds, the hounds
But look there,n says David, shat rein
Hoa koo coI1
Its hot lips and nostriis into the cool wav Q
that washes the 1athered TANKS, and it
swims away from the fiery CANNES, and it
is free at last Oh, that might find in
the deep, wide Lake of Gods mercy and
consolation escape from my pursuers.
Oh, for the waters of life and rescued As
the hart panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after Thee, o God.o
have just come from the Adirond acks
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 q few days ago with hunter
thought would like to see whether my
text was accurate in its allusion, and as
I heard the dogs baying little way off
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:
20, yes, Mister, you see they are 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
cedar she'll boat or stand by the run
away with rifle loaded ready to blaze
away"
AS the hart panteth after the water brooks.
SO panteth my soul after Thee,O, God
Well, now, let all those who have CON.
ing after them the lean hounds of power.
ty, or the black hounds Of persecution, or
the spotted hounds of vicissitude, or the
pale hounds Of death, or who are in anv
wise pursued, fly to the wide, deep, glori-
GUS lake OF Divine solace and rescue. The
most OF the men and women whom ham,
pen to know, at different times. If not
now, have had trouble after them, sharp
muzzled trouble, swift troubles. all de-
vouring troubles. Many of You have
made the mistake of trying to fight them.
10y AAASohAy aetdChou you, ana You
attacked them; they deprecated you, Won
deprecated them; or they overreached
you in bargain, and you tried, in Wall
street parlance, to get corner on them:
or you have had bereavement. and in.
stead OF being submissive, you are fight
ing that bereavement; you charge on the
DOCTORS who failed to effect a cure: or
you charge on the carelessness Of the
railroad company through which the acct
dent occurred; or you are a chronic in
valid, and you fret and worry and scold
and wonder why you can not be well liko
other people. and you angrily charge on
the neuralgia or the Iaryngitis or the
ague or the sick headache.
The fact is you are deer at bav. In.
stead OF running to the waters of Divine
and shaking your thirst and
cooling your body and soul in the goo 4
cneer OF the Gospel, and swimming awav
INTO the mighty deeps of Gods love. Won
are fighting whole KENNEL of harriers
A few days ago / saw in the Adiron-
aacks dog lying across the road, and he
seemed unable to get up, and l said to
some hunters near by:
What is the matter with that doo,p
they answered: "a deer hurt hin, >,
Ana saw he had great swollen nav
and q battered head Shouinc, c,ho.. -