Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-20
CRUEL CHECK REINS
And Useless Blinds That Torture the
Horses of Pittsburg.
THE WOLF HUNT AT GREENSBURG
And Barbarous Beating of Children and
Animals Here at Home.
REV. GEORGE HODGES ON HUMANE WORK
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH ]

"And also much cattle. Jonah iv., II.
| Everybody knows that the Book of Jonah
contains an improbable story about fish.
It is likely that the information of great
| many people in regard to this book is alto
gether confined to the limits of this story.
What is the Book Of Jonah about? It is
about fish which swallowed a man. That
would be the answer Of surprising number
even of intelligent people.
The truth is, however, that while there
| are four chapters in this book, the account
of the adventure with the fish is contained
in three short sentences The Book of
Jonah is one Of the most interesting, sug-
gestive and instructive books in the whole
Bible. It is one of the text books of toler-
ance. It teaches the universal love of God.
1t does not hesitate to compare the prophet
Of Israel to his disadvantage with the pagan
crew of the Mediterranean sailing vessel
It records the quick answer that God gave
to the prayers Of pagan Ninevah.
Book Full Of Rich Thoughts.
One of the lessons in it is that all prom
ises of punishment are conditioned upon
the penitence of the criminal. The most
absolute menace of certain destruction is
taken back and changed into benediction,
when the sinner is sorry for his sin. The
Book of Jonah teaches us how to read some
hard sentences in the New Testament about
the damnation of the wicked. It is book
of Justice and of mercy, revelation of the
universal fatherhood Of God. The least i'm
portant part of the book is the story of the
fish.
To fasten upon that, to emphasize that, to
bring that into the foreground and to put
all the great religious lessons of this won-
derful book into the dim and neglected
background, is as if congregation should
seize upon some pretty figure of a great SER
mon, some singular illustration of moment
ary error of utterance, and think about that,
and talk about that, and forget all the help
ful words which had been spoken besides
That, indeed, is human nature. But we
need to be on guard against the mistakes of
human nature. Take pencil and mark out
those three verses and then read this won-
derful, wise and uplifting book.
Too Much Mystery About the Fish.
five are to give attention to any animals
in the Book Of Jonah, we will do we'll to
leave the fish and take the cattle. Let us
turn our backs upon this mysterious fish,
which we see but uncertainty beneath the
shifting waves, and which, it is likely, be-
longs rather to the world of poetry than to
the world of real fishing smacks; and let us
consider the cattle which we know, the
everyday cows and horses of old Nineveh,
which Jonah cared so little about, and
which the critics and the commentators and
Indifferent readers have cared no more
about, but which were of interest and value
in the sight of God.
For we read that Jonah was disappointed
when his fierce sermon failed to come true.
He stood out in the suburbs Of the city on
that fatal fortieth day and watched the sky.
He prayed for thunder and lightning, for
red-hot shafts of destruction, for fiery hail
and birthstone, for Sodom and Gommorah
over again. And when the sun went on
shining, and the day came to an end, and
the town still stood, and no torment from
the hand of God touched it, Jonah was sore
grieved. He felt himself abused. God had
dealt unkindly with him. God had sent
him to preach punishment, to prophecy
hell, and then God had not punished. Bet
ter that all Nineveh should perish, Jonah
thought, than that his sermons should be
thus discredited.
Merciful in His Wrath.
Then God spoke to Jonah. God told
Jonah that he loved those children of his in
Nineyeh; yes, the most ignorant and the
meanest of them; yes, even the very cows
and the horses of Nineveh. "Should not
have pity on Nineveh, that great city;
wherein are more than six-scOre thousand
people who cannot discern between their
right hand and their left hand; and also
much cattle"
The lesson that want to emphasize is
that God cares for cattle. God looks down
upon this city, and he thinks not only about
the good people and the important people
as we count importance-and the rich and
influential people, and the poor people
crowded together in narrow and unclean
dwellings, living in destitution physical
and intellectual and moral, scarcely know
ing the difference between right and left,
scarcely knowing the difference between
right and wrong; but God thinks also of all
the horses in this city, knows what sort of
food they have, and what kind of stables
they live in, and the work that is put upon
them and all the treatment that is given
them. God has regard for the cattle, for the
horses and the cows, for the cats and the
dogs, for the birds, tor all the living creatures
he has made. God is present not only IN
the house Of prayer, but next door in the
stockyards.
Cru city In Jonah's Makeup.
Jonah was willingness, and desirous-
that the inhabitants of Nineveh, the men
and the women and the little children,
should all die horribly. He stood by with
a certain pleased anticipation waiting to see
the agony begin. There Is an unmistakable
element of cruelty in human nature. The
story Of the life of man has fearful chapters
in it, chapters written in red, records OF
wars, of massacres, of murders, of martyr
doms. Jonah has stood exulting hundred
thousand times and watched the vim
dication of his doctrine in the torments of
his brethren. The whole world over, IN
savagery and in civilization, in all lands, In
the times that are told of in ancient history,
and in the day which is recorded in this
mornings paper, that old inhuman attitude
of the prophet by the city is to be seen.
Think of the slaughter by the great
armies of Assyria and Egypt! Think of
the horrors of the old religions, with their
mutilations and their human sacrifices!
where the fair ladies of society thrust the
long pins which held their hair into the
flesh OF their offending servants! Think OF
the vast multitudes of pleasure seekers who
crowded the amphitheaters ofthe Empire. as
gaily as people go now an evening
to the play, that they might
Watch the Murder of Their FeIIowmen
and study the agonies of violent death;
where the vestal virgins, the women Of re-
ligion, held down their thumbs to indicate
to the victorious gladiator that he was to
hack his victims head off! Think of all
the barbarous punishments, the crucifxions,
the martyr fires, the racks and wheels, the
black dungeons! Think OF the tortures of
the Inquisition, of the woes of the Russian
prisons and the agonies of Siberian exile!
Think of what is going on to-day in Gen.
tral Africa at the hands Of Arab slave