Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-11-30
AT THE TABERNACLE.
"A HUNTING SCENE" THE SUBJECT Or
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.


ting OF Repentance.
BRooKLYN, Nov. 2G.--In the forenoon
service at the Tabernacle to-day, Rev. Dr.
Talmagc took for his subject n most sea-
sonable one, "A Hunting Scene" the text
being Genesis Xix, 81, an the morning he
shall devour the prey, and at night he
shall divide the spoil"
A few nights ago SEQ 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. Be
tween sunrise and o'clock in the after
noon of thai day 10 deer were shot. On the
Goth of October our woods and forests re-
sound with the shock of erearms and are
tracked of pointers and settlers because the
quail are then lawful prize for the sports-
man.
On a certain day in all England you can
hear tho crack of the sportsman's gun, be-
cause grouse hunting has begun, and every
man that can afford the time and ammuni-
tion and can draw bead starts for the
fcltS Nenophon grew eloquent in regard
to the art of hunting. In the fur east pco-
pie elephant mounted, chase the tiger.
The American Indian darts his arrow ut
the buffalo until the frightened herd tum-
bic 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 mighty hunter before the Lord"
Therefore, in all ages of the world, the
imagery ofmy text ought to be suggestive,
whether it means wolf after a fox or
man after lion.
Old Jacob, dying, is telling the fortunes
Of oh la bn Il aN-rt
ing propensties 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 night
fall 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 IA coney, and another
a rabbit 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 II
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
HUNTERS OF THE WORLD.
take my text, in the first place, as de-
scriptive of those people who i'll the morn
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 spells of Christian
character. There are aged Christian men
and women in this house who, if they gave
testimony, would tell You that in the morn
ing of their life they were after the world
as intense as a hound after "A hare, or as n
falcon swoops upon gaZelle. They want
cd the worlds plalHiits 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 tie man who
laughed loudest was happiest. They tried
rcpartee 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 worshipers of the
harlequin, and tie Merry Andrew, and the
bulfoon, and the jester. Life was to them
foam and bubble and exclamation and
registering and grimace. They were so full
of glee they could hardly repress their
mirth even on solemn occasions, and they
came near bursting ont 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 n joke.
From the heart of God there blazed into
their soul an earnestness they had never
felt before. They awoi>e to their sinfulness
aud their immortality, and here they sit at
to or 20 years Of age as apprecative Of all
innocent mirth as they ever We're, but they
are bent on style OF satisfaction which in
early life they never hunted-tEe evening
of their days brighter than the morning.
In the morning they devoured tie prey,
but at night they divided the spoils.
THE CHASE OF THE DOLLAR.
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 Il $1,000 turn.
out They thought they would like to
have the morning sunlight tangled in the
headgear of a dashing span. They wanted
tie bridges in the park to resound under
the rataplan Of their swift hoofs. They
wanted a gilded baldric, and so they start
ed on the dollar hunt. They chased it up
one street and chased it down another.
They followed it when it burrowed III the
cellar They treed it in the rooi.
Wherever n dollar was expected to he,
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
rs an Adirondack sportsman is thrilled at
midnight by looms laugh. They chased
that dollar to the money vault. They chased
it to the government treasury. They routed
1T from under the counter. All the hounds
were opt-all the pointers and the settlers
They leaped the hedges for that dollar, and
they cried; "Hark awayl A dollar! a dol
larH And when at last they came upon it
and had actually captured it their excite
msnt was like that of falconer who has
successfully flung his first hawk.
In the morning of their life, oh, how they
'levoured the preyl But there came bet
LEI time to their soul. They found ont that
pn immortal nature cannot live on bank
ttock. They took up "A Northern Pacific
bond, and there was hole in il through
how f,4t ,tit,