Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-11-01
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent New York Dlvins's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject, "The Designations OF the
Race Track

among the trumpets, la. ha! and he smelleth
the battle afar off, the thunder of the can
tains. and the shouting. JOB xxx, 10,
81, Is.
We nave recently had long columns Of in
felligence from the race course, and multi
tudes focked to the watering places to wit
ness equine competition, and there Is lively
discussion in all households about the right
and wrong Of such exhibitions of mettle and
speed. and when there is a heresy abroad
that the cultivation of horses feetness is
an iniquity instead of a commenable virtue
at such a time r. sermon is demanded OF
every minister who would like to defend
pubic morals on tho one hand, and who is
not willing TO see an unrighteous abridg-
ment of innocent amusement on the other.
In this discussion I shall follow no serm onic
precedent, but will give independently what
consider the Christian and common sense
view of this potent, all absorbing and agitat-
ing question of the turf.
There needs to be a redistribution Of cor
onets among the brute creation. For ages
the Ion has been called the king Of beasts.
| / knock off its coronet and put the crown
upon the horse, in every way nobler, whether
| in shape. or spirit; or sagaciJy, or intelli-
gencp, or affection. or usefulness. He is
| samihuman, and known how 10 reason on u
| small SCALE The centaur of olden times,
part horse and part man, seems to be srSs
| gestion of the fact that the horse is some-
thing more than beast. Job in my text
sets forth his strength. his beauty. his MAJ
esty. the painting of his nostril, the paving
Of his hoof and his enthusiasm for the batA
tie. What Rosa Bonheur did for the cattle
and what Lan1seer did for the dog Job with
mightier pencil does for the horse. Eighty
eight times does the Bible speak Of him. He
srto Ii rOoopccfOu nd infn
every great occasion and into every triumph.
| It is very evident that Job aud David and
Isaiah ami Ezekiel and jeremiah and John
were fond of the horse. He comes into much
of their imagery. red horse-that meant
war. A black horse-that meant famine.
pabe horse that meant DEATH A white
| horse-that meant victory. Good Mordecat
mouths him while Haman holds the bit. The
church's advance in the Bible is compared
10 company of horses OF pharaoh's chariot.
| Jeremiah cries out. Show canst thou con-
tend with horses?" Isaiah says "The horses
hoofs shall be counted as flint" Miriam
caps her cymbals and sings, "The horse and
the rider hath he thrown into the sea-" st,
John describing Christ as coming forth from
conquest to conquest. represents Him as
seated on n white horse. In the parade OF
heaven the Bible makes us hear the clicking
of hoo's on the golden pavement as 1t says.
"The armies which were in heaven followed
Him on white horses" / should mot wonder
If the horse, 81 banged, and bruised, and
beaten and outraged on earth, should have
some other place where his wrongs shall be
righted. do not assert 1t, but l say |
should not be surprised if after all st. Johns
description of the horses in heaven turned
ont not altogether 20 be fgurative but someA
what literal.
AS the Bible makes favorite OF the horse,
the patriarch, and the prophet, aud the evan
gelist, and the apostle strOking his sleek hide
and patting his rounded neck, and tenderly
lifting his exouisitely formed hoof, and
listening with thrill to 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 plagiarize
from this description in the text, so mucn
are the descriptions alike-the description
of Virgil and the description OF Job. The
Duke of Wellington would not allow any one
irreverently to touch his old warhorse Cop
enhagen, on whom he hal ridden fifteen
hours without dismounting at Waterloo,
and when old Copenhagen died his master
ordered military salute fired over his
grave. John Howard showed that he did
not exhaust ali his sympathies in plying the
human race for whc1 sick he writes home.
"Has my old chaso horse become sick or
spoied?" There is hardly any passage OF
French literature more pathetic than the
lamentation over the death of the war charg-
er Marchegay. Water Scott had so much
admiration for this divinely honored crea-
ture of God that in "St. Romans WelP' he
orders the girth slackened and the blanket
thrown over the smoking fanks. Edmund
Burke. walking in the park at Beaconsfeld,
mus,ng 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
cries. Rowland bill, the great English
preacher was carlcatured because in his
family prayers he duplicated for the recov-
erv of sick horse, but when the horse got
well. contrary to all the prophecies OF the
farriers, the prayer did not seem quite Sc
much of an ahsurdity.
But what shall say OF the maltreatment
of this beautiful AMI wonderful creature oil
God? If Thomas Chalmers in his day felt
Gale upon to preach a sermon against cru
city to animals, how much more in this day
Is there need of reprehensive discourse
All honor i the memory Of Professor Bergh,
the chief apostle Tor the brute creation, to1
the mercy he demanded and achieved for this
king of beasts. man who owned 4OOC
horses. and some say 10000, wrote in thu
Bible "a righteous man regardeth the If
of his beast" Sir Henry Lawrence's care 0
the horse was beautifully Christian. "H
says: "I expect we shalllose Conrad, though
have taken so much care Of him hat h
may come in cool. l always walk him thu
last four or five miles, and as 1 walk mysel
the first hour, it is only in the middle Of the
journey we get over the ground" The Eft
rick Shepherd in his matchless "AmbroSia
Nights" speaks OF the maltreatment of thu
horse as a practical blasphemy. I do no
believe in the transmigration Of souls. but
cannot very severely denounce the idea. fol
when I see men who cut and bruise anC
whack and welt and strike and maui and out
rage @ad insult the horse, that beaut1ru
servant of the human race, who carries GU
burdens and pulls our plows and turns ou
thrashers and our mills and runs for gu
Jcctors-When see men thus beating AM
abusing ard outraging that creature, 1t seem
to me that it would be only fair that tn
doctrine of reconsideration of souls shoul
prove true, and that for their punishment
they should pass over into some poor mlser
able brute and be beaten and whacked ant
cruelty treated and frozen and heated an
oyerridden-into an everlasting stage morse
an eternal traveller on towpath, or tied Z
an eternal post, in an eternal winter, slhl'
ten with eternal epizootics!
On is If not q shame that the brute crea
tion. which had the first possession OF GU
world. should be so maltreaed by the rae
hat came in last-the fowl and the ifs
created on the fifth day, the horse and tn
cattle breathed on the morning OF the sixth
day aud the human race not created unit
ihe evening Of The sixth dav? 1t ought t.
he that if anv man overdrives a horse. o
feeds him when he is hot. or recklesslN
drives nail into the quick OF his hoof'
rowels him 10 see him pranre, or so shoe
hin, that his fetlocks drop blood. or pnfs
| nollnr ON raw neck unnecoSeqrlI