Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-11-30
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
"A HUNTING SCENE" THE SUB
JECT OF A SERMON.
'In the Morning He Shall Devour the
Prey and at Night He Shall Divide
Grace.

service at the Tabernacle to day, Rev. DR..
Talmage took for his subject a most sea-
sonable one: "a Hunting Scene" the
text being Genesis 40 81: sin the morning
he shall devour the prey, and at night he
shall divide the spoil"
A few nights ago eight hundred men
encamped along the Long Island rail
road so as to be ready for the next
morning which was the first open
day" for deer-hunting. Between sun
rise and o'clock in the afternoon of
that day fifteen deer were shot. On
the Goth of October our woods and
forests resound with shock of fire.
arms, and are tracked of pointers and
settlers, because the quail are then n
lawful prize for the sportsman. On a
certain day in all England you can
hear the crack of the sportsman's gun,
because the grouse hunting has be-
gun; and every man that can afford
the time and ammunition, and
can draw bead, starts for
the fields. Nenophon grew eloquent
in regard to the art of hunting. In
the far east people, elephant mounted,
chase the tiger. The American Indian
darts his arrow at the buffalo until the
frightened herd tumble over the rocks.
European mobiles are often found in the
fox chase and at the stag hunt. Fran
els !. was called the father of hunting.
Moses declares of Nimrod: HE was
mighty hunter before the Lord"
Therefore, in all ages of the world the
imagery of my text ought to be sug
gestive, whether it means "a wolf after
fox or man after lion. Old Jacob,
dying, is telling the fortunes of his
children. He prophesies the devouring
propensities of benjamin and his de-
scendants. With his dim old eyes he
looks off and sees the hunters going
out to the fields, ranging them all day,
and at nightfall coming home, the
game slung over the shoulder, and
reaching the door of the tent the hunt
ers begin to distribute the game, and
one takes coney, and another rab-
bit, and another a roe. In the morn
ing he shall devour the prey, and at
night he shall divide the spoil" Or it
may be a reference to the habits Of
wild beasts that Stay their prey and
then drag it back to the cave or lair
and divide it among the young.
take my text, in the first place, as
descriptive of those people who in the
morning of their life give themselves
up to hunting the world, but afterward,
by the grace of God, in the evening of
their life divide among themselves the
Spoils of Christian character. There are
aged Christian men and women in this
house who, if they gave testimony
would tell you that in the morning of
their life they were after the world as
intense as a hound after hare, or as a
falcon swoops upon a gazelle. They
wanted the worlds plaudits and the
worlds gains. They felt that if they
could get this world they would
have everything. Some of them
started out for the pleasures of the
world. They thought that the man
! who laughed loudest was happiest.
They tried repartee, and conundrum,
! and burlesque, and madrigaL They
T! thought they would like to be Tom
Hoods, or Charles Lambs or Edgar A.
Poes. They mingled wine, and music, and
the spectacular They were worship
pers of the harlequin, and the Merry
Andrew, and the buffoon and the Jester.
Life was to them foam, and bubble,
and cachinnation, and registering, and
| grimace. They We're so full of glee
they could hardly repress their mirth,
/ h.,
came near Bursting out hilariously
! even at the burial, because there was
something so dolorous in the tone or
cOuntenance of the undertaken After
awhile, misfortune struck them hard
on the back. They found there was
something they could not laugh at.
| Under their late hours their health
| gave way. or there was death in the
house. OF every green thing their soul
was eXfoliated. They found out that
! life was more than joke. From the
| heart of God there blazed into their
| soul an earnestness they had never felt
before. They awoke to their sinful,
ness and their immortality, and here
! they sit at 60 or 20 years of age, as APP,
! preciative of all innocent mirth as they
ever were but they are bent on a style
of satisfaction which in earthly life
they never hunted; the evening
! of their days brighter than the morn.
ing. In the morning they devoured
the prey, but at night they divided the
| spoils.
Then there are others who started
! out for financial success. They see
how timber the rim of mans hat is
when he bows down before some one
transpicuous. They felt they would
like to see how the world looked from
the window of four thousand dollar
turnout. They thought they would
like to have the morning sunlight
tangled in the headgear of a dashing
span. They wanted the bridges in the
park to resound under the rataplan OF
their swift hoofs. They wanted a
! gilded baldrick, and so they started on
the dollar hunt. They chased it up
one street and chased it down another.
They followed it when it burrowed IN
the cellar. They freed it in the roof.
Wherever dollar was expected to be,
they were. They chased it across the
ocean. They chased it across the land.
They stopped not for the night. Hear.
ing that dollar, even in the darkness,
thrilled them as an Adirondack sports,
man is thrilled at midnight by looms
laugh. They chased that dollar to the
money vault. They chased it to the gov,
eminent treasury. They routed it from
under the counter. All the hounds
were out-all the pointers and the set
ters They leaped the hedges for thai
dollar, and they cried: ''Hark away! {
dollar! a dollar" And when at las
they came upon it and had actually
captured it, their excitement was Xix,
that of falconer who has successfully
flung his first hawk. In the morning
of their life, oh, how they devoureC
the prey! But there came better tim,
to their soul They found out that al
immortal nature cannot live on banl
| "a, II. -