The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1895-10-24
TALMAGE ON THE TURF.
HORSE RACING.
A Sermon That is Full OF Interest to
Lovers of Horses.

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Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
He paweth in the valley, and reloiccth; he
voeth on to meet the armed men. He saith
among the trumuets. ha. hal and he smelIetb
the battle afar OF. the thunder of the can
tains. and the shouting. job xxx, 10.
21, 25.
We have recently had long columns Of in
telligence from the race course. and multi
tudes fockedto the watering places TO wit
ness equine competition aud there is lively
discussion in all households about the right
and wrong Of such exhibitions of mettle and
speed. and when there 10 heresy abroad
that the cultivation of horses fleetness is
an tniquity instead OF "a commenable virtue
at such u time a sermon is demanded OF
every minister who would like 20 defend
pubic morals on the one hand. and who ia
NOT wiling TO see an unriGhteous abriig-
ment OF innocent amusement on the other
In this discussion | shall follow no sermonic
precedent. but will give INDEPENDENTLY what 1
consider the Christian and common sense
viewof this potent. niI absorbing aud ngitat-
ing question OF the turf.
There needs To he n redistribution OF cor
onets among the brute creation, For ages
the lion has been called the king of beasts.
knock on lis coronet aud put the crown
uponthe horse. in every way nobler. whether
in shape. or spirit: or sagacitv. or intelli-
gencr. or affection. or usefulness. He is
semihumau, and known how To reason on a
small scale. The ccntaur of oldep times
part horse and part man. seems TO be sug-
gestion Of the fact that the horse is some-
thing more than beast. job in my text
sets forth his strength. his beauty, his mai
cstN. the painting Of his nostril the paving
of his hoof and his enthusiasm for the bat
tie. What Rosa Bonheur did for the cattle
and what Laniseer did for the dog job with
mightier pencil does Tor the horse. Eighty
eight times does the Bible speak of him. He
comes into every kingly possession and into
every great occasion and into every triumph.
IL j. very evident that job and David aud
Isaiah and Ezekiel and jeremiah and John
We're fond Of the horse. He comes intomuch
OF their imagery. 4 rcd horse that meant
war. A black horse-that meant famine. A
pale horse that meant death. white
horse-that meant victory. Good Mordecai
months him while Haman holds the bit The
church's advance in the Bible il compared
10 "a company OF horses Of Pharaoh's chariot
Jeremiah cries out. "How cnnst thou con-
tend with horscsI" Isaiah says. "rhe horses
hoofs shall bc counted as flint" Miriam
claps her cymbals and sings. "The horse and
the rider hath he thrown into the sea-" st
John describing Christ a. coming forth from
conquest to conquest. represents Him rs
seated on white horse. In the parade of
heaven the Bible makes Us hear the clicking
OF hoois on the golden pavement rs II saws
The armies which were in heaven followed
Him on white horses.' should,not wonder
III the horse, so banged, and bruised and
beaten and outraged on earth. should have
some other place where his wrongs shall be
righted. do not assert It. but | say
should not be surprised II after all 81. Johns
description of the horses in heaven turned
ont not altogether 20 be fgurative but some
what literal
As the Bible makes a favoritc of the horse,
the patriarch. and the prophet. and the evan
gelist, and the apostle stroking his sleek hide
and patting his rounded neck. and tenderly
lifting his eNquisitely formed hoof aud
listening with a thrillpto the champ OF his
bit. so all great natures in all ages have
spoken OF him In encomiastic terms. Virgil
in his Georges almost seems to plagiarze
FROM this deSGriptior in the. text se.nuch
are the descriptions alike--.he description
OF Virgil and the description OF Job. The
Duke OF Wellington would not allow any one
irreverently 20 touch his old warhorse Cop
enhagen. ON whom he had ridden fifteen
hours without dismounting at Waterloo.
ana when old Copenhagen died his master
ordered military salute fired over his
grave. John Howard showed that he did
not exhaust all his sympathies in plying the
human race. for when sick he writes home
Has NV old chaise horse become sick or
spoileiy' There is hardly any passage of
French literature more pathetic than the
lamentation over the death Of the war charg-
er Marchegay. Walter Scott hal So much
admiration for this divinely honorel crea-
ture OF God that in "St. Romans Well" he
orders the girth slackened and the blanket
thrown over the smoking tanks. Edmund
Burke. walking in the park at Beaconsneld
musing over the past. throws his arms
around the wornout horse Of his dead son
Richard, and weeps upon the horses neck.
the horse seeming to sympathiZe in the mem
ories. Rowland Hill, the great English
preacher, was caricatured because in his
family prayers he supplicated for the recov-
cry OF n sick horse, but wslen the horse got
well, contrary TO all the prophecies Of tho
iarriers, the prayer did NOT seem quite 50
much of an absurdity.
But what shall | say Of the maitreatment
OF this beautiful and wonderful creature of
GodI If Thomas Chalmers in his day felt
callei upon to preach II sermon against cru
city to animals how much more in this day
is there need of reprehensive discourse!
All honor To the memory of Professor b srgh.
the chief apostle for the brute creation, for
the mercy he demanded ana achieved for this
king of beasts. A man who owned 1909
horses, and some say 1900, wrote in the
Bible. "a righteous man regardeth the life
Of his beast" Sir Henry Lawrence's care OF
tine horse was beautifully Christian. "He
says; II expect we shall lose Conrad, though
have taken so much care of him that he
may come in cool. l always walk him the
last four or five miles, and as i walk myself
the first hour, II is only in the middle Of the
journey We get over the ground The Ett-
rick Shepherd in his matchless "Ambrosial
Nights speaks OF tho maltreatment OF the
horse as a practical blasphemy. l do not
believe in the transmigration of souls. but
cannot very severely denounce the idea. for
when l see men who cut and bruise and
whack and welt and strike and maui and out
rage and insult the horse, that beautiful
servant OF the human race. who carries our
burdens and pulls our plows and turns our
thrashers and our mills and runs for our
doctors-when / see men thus beating and
abusing ard outraging that creature, II seems
TO me that it would be only fair that the
doctrine OF transmigration OF souls should |
prove true, and that for their punishment |
they should pass over into some poor miser.
able brute and be beaten and whacked and |
cruelty treated aud frozen and heated and !
overriddeD-into an everlasting stage horse, |
an eternal traveller ON towpath, or tied TO |
an eternal post, In an eternal winter, smit- |
ten with eternal epizootics.
There is n delusion abroad in tho world !
that Il thing must be necessarily good ana |