The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-12-08
THE HUNTING SCENE.
Dr. Talmage Disconrses on a Novel
Theme.
The Hunting Season and It's Application to
Worldly Life-The Chase of Pleasure
and of Wealth and the Spells
of Christianity.


ject of a recent sermon at Brooklyn by
Rev. I. De Witt Talmagesand the text
was from Genesis xxxxix. 81: "In the
morning he shall devour the prey. and
at night he shall divide the spoil"
The preacher said: A few nights ago
500 men encamped along the Long
Island railroad, SO as to be ready for
the next morning, which was the first
''open day" for deer hunting. Between
sunrise and o'clock in the afternoon
of that day fifteen deer were shot. On
the Goth of October our woods and for
ests resound with shock of firearms,
and are tracked of pointers and settlers,
because the quail are then a lawful
prize for the sportsman. On
certain day in all England
you can hear the crack of the
sportsman's gun, because grouse
hunting has begun; and every man
that can afford the time and ammuni-
ton and can draw n bead starts for
the fields. Xenophon grew eloquent
in regard to the art of hunting. In
the far east, people, elaphant-mounted,
chase the tiger. The American Indian
darts his arrow at the buffalo until the
frightend herd tumble 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
a wolf after a fox, or a man after
lion. Old Jacob. dying, is telling the
fortunes of his children. He prophesies
the devouring propensit:es of Benjamin
and his descendants. With his dim old
eyes he looks off and sees the hunters
going out to the fields, ranging them
all day, and at pightfall 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 a coney, and another a rab-
bit, and another a roe. I'm 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 life give themselves up to
hunting the world, but afterwards, 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.
We uld tell you that in the morning of
their life they were after the world as
intense as hound after a hare, or as
falcon swoops upon 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 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
ers of the harlequin, and the Merry
Andrew, and the buffoon. and the
Jester. Life was to them foam, and
bubble, and cachinnation, and royster-
ing, and grimace. They were so full
of glee they could hardly repress their
mirth. even on solemn occasions, and
they came near bursting out hilari-
ously even at the burial. because there
An1o,.p,rc inf h, fnn
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
before. They awoke to their sinful
ness and Immortality, and here they
sit at 60 or 20 years of age. as appre-
ciative of all innocent mirth as they
ever were, but they are bent on a 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 spoils.
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
morning sunlight tangled in the head
gear of dashing span. They wanted
the bridges in the park to resound un-
der the rataplan of their swift hoofs
They wanted 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 a
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. Hearing
that dollar. even in the darkness,
thrilled them as an Adirondack sports
man is thrilled at midnight by a looms
laugh. They chased that dollar to the
money vault. They chased it to the
government treasury. They routed it
from under the counter All the
hounds were out-all the pointers and
the settlers. They leaped the hedges
for that dollar, and they cried: ''Hark
away! dollar! a dollar!" And when
at last they came upon it and had
actually captured it, their excitement
was like that of falconer who has
successfully flung his first hawk. In
the morning of their life. oh, how they