Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-12-08
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject: "a Hunting Scene."

"Open day Tor deer hunting. between sun
rise and o'clock in the afternoon OF tina
day fifteen deer were shot. On the Goth O
October our woods and forests resound witt
the shock OF firearms and ere tracked o
pointers and settlers because the quail are
then a lawful prize for TIE sportsman.
On certain day in all England you car
hear the crack OF the sportsmans gun
because grouse hunting has begun, and
every men that can afford the time and am
munition and can draw bead starts for the
fields. Xenophon grew eloquent in regard
TO the art of hunting. In the far east peo-
pie, elephant mounted, chase the tiger. The
American Indian darts his arrow at the buff
salo until the frightened herd fall over the
rocks. European mobiles are often found in
the fox chase and at the stag hunt. Francis
was called the father OF hunting. Moses
declares of Nimrod. "He was a mighty
hunter before the Lord" Therefore, in all
ages of the world, the imagery of my text
ought to be suggestive. whether it means a
wolf after fox or man after lion.
Old Jacob, dying, is telling the fortunes
= of his children. He prophesies the devour-
ing 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 hunters begin TO distribute the game, and
one takes Il coney. and another rabbit, and
another roe. I'm the morning he shall de-
YOUR 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 di-
vide it among the young.
Itake my text, in the first place. as de-
scriptive Of those people who in the m orn-
ing of their life give themselves up to hunt
ing the world, but afterward, by the grace of
God in the evening of their life divide
among themselves the spOils of Christian
character. Thereare aged Christian men and
women in this house, who. ifthey gave testi-
mony, would toll you that in the morning of
Etheir life they were after the world as in
tense as hound after a hare, or as falcon
ewoops upon gazelle. They wanted the
worlds plaudits and the worlds gains.
They felt that il 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 thought they would like to be Tom
Hoods or Charles Lambs or Edgar A. Poes.
They mingled wine and music and the spec
tacular. They were worshipers of the har-
lequin, and the Merry Andrew, and the but-
and bubble and cachinnation and registering
and grimace. They were so full of glee they
could hardly repress their mirth even on SOL
emn occasions, and they 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 some
thing 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 exfoiated. They found out
that life was moro than q joke. From the
heart of God there blazed into their soul an
earnestness they had never felt before. They
awoke to their sinfulness and their immoral
ity, and here they sit at sixty or seventy
years of age as appreciative of all innocent
mirth as they ever were, but they are bent
on style OF satisfaction which in early life
they never hunted--the evening of their days
brighter than the morning. In the morning
they devoured the prey. but at night they
divided the spells.
Then there are others who started out for
+, financial success. They see how timber the
rim of a 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 $4,000 turnout. They
thought they would like to have the morn
ing sunlight tangled in the headgear of a
s.dashing span. They wanted the bridges in
Ne park to resound under the rataplan of
Dir swift hoofs. They wanted a gilded
and so they started on the dollar
They chased it up one street and
St down another. They followed 1t
burrowed in the cellar. They freed
roof.
ll5feyer a dollar was expected to be,
X nox. oh 10
They chased it across the land. They stopped
not for the night. Hearing that dollar, even
in the darkness, thrilled them as an Adiron-
dack sportsman 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 tho pointers and the settlers. They
leaped the hedges for that dollar, and they
cried clark away A dollar A dollar
And when at last they came upon it and had
actually captured it their excitement was
~ a falconer who has successfully
1pg of their life, oh, how they
ley But there came a be%
soul. They found out that
bature cannot live on bank
kool up Northern Pacific
ERE was a hole in it through
ould look into the uncertainty
ly treasures. They saw some
ms at the rate of S25 900 month,
pfom a San Francisco wharf because
IA not continue to live at the same
They saw the wien and paralytic
Rers who had changed their souls into
Often gold stamped with the image of the
Barthy, earthly. They saw some great souls
by avarice turned into homuncuii, and they
said to themselves, II will seek after higher
ereasure"
From that time they did not care whether
they walked or rode II Christ walked with
them nor whether they lived in mansion
or in a hut ifthey dwelt under the shadow
of the Almighty, nor whether they were
robed in French broadcloth or in homespun
if they had the robe of the Saviour's right
eousness nor if they were sandalled with
morocco or calfskin if they were sho1 with
the preparation of the Gospel. Now you see
peace on their countenance. Now that man
says "What fool was to be enchanted
with this world. Why, havo more satisfac-
ton In five minutes in the service OF God
than had in all the first years of my life
While l was gaingetting. like this evening
OF my day great deal better than did the
morning. In the morning. l greedily de-
voured the prey, but now it is evening, and
/ am gloriously dividing the spoil"
My friends, this world is poor thing to
hunt. Ills healthful to go out in the woods
and hunt. 1t rekindles the luster Of the eye.
1t strikes the brown of the autumnal leaf in
to the cheek. IL gives to the rheumatic limbs
the strength to leap like roe. Christopher
North's pet gun, the muckle-mou'd Meg, go.
ing off in the summer in the forest had its
echo in the winter time in the eloquence that
rang through the university halls of Edin-
burgh. 1t is healthy to go hunting in the
fields. but l tell you that it is belittling and
bedwar6ng and belaming for man 10 hunt
this world. The hammer comes down on the