The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-10-23
THE RACE COURSE.
Rev. Dr.. Talmage Gives His
Views Concerning It.
The Horse the Noblest Animal In the Brute
Creation-It Is Mans Friend and
Should be Kindly Treated
Race-Track Gambling
Condemned.

In his recent sermon the noted
divine discussed the merits of the
horse and strongly denounced those
who abuse it. His text was selected
from Job xxx. 10, 81, %: Hast thou
given the horse strength? Hast thou
clothed his neck with thunder? He
paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth; he
goeth on to meet the armed men. He
saith among the trumpets, ha! ha! and
he smelleth the battle afar off, the
thunder of the captains, and the shout
ing"
We have recently had long columns
of intelligence from the race course,
and multitudes foclked to the watering
places to witness 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 commendable
virtue--at such time a sermon is de-
manded of every minister who would
like to defend public morals on the one
hand, and who is not willing to see an
unrighteous abridgement of innocent
amusement on the other. In this dis
cussion l shall follow no sermonic
precedent, but will give Independently
what I consider the Christian and COM
nonsense view of this potent, all alb
sorbing and agitating question of the
turf
There needs to be redistribution of
coronets among the brute creation.
For ages the lion 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 sagacity, or intelligence, or
affection, or usefulness. He is semi
human and knows how to reason on a
small scale. The centaur of olden
times, part horse and part man, seems
to be suggestion of the fact that the
horse is something more than beast
Job in my text sets forth his strength,
his beauty, his majesty, the painting of
his nostril, the paving of his hoof and
his enthusiasm for the battle. What
Rosa Bonheur did for the cattle, and
what Landseer did for the dog, Job
with mightier pencil does for the horse.
Eighty-eight times does the Bible speak
of him. He comes into every llingly
procession, and into every great occa-
sion, and into every triumph. 1t is
very evident that Job, and David, and
Isaiah, and Ezekiel, and jeremiah, and
John were fond of the horse He comes
into much of their imagery. A red
horse-that meant war; A black horse
that meant famine. A pale horse
that meant death. A white horse-that
meant victory. Good Mordecai mounts
him while Haman holds the bit. The
church's advance in the the Bible is
compared to company OF horses o1
Pharoahs chariot. Jeremiah cries out
slow canst thou contend with horses?'
Isaiah says: "The horses hoofs shall
be counted as flint" Miriam clasps
her cymbals and sings: 1.-THE horse and
the rider hath he thrown into the sea-. "
st. John describing Christ as coming
forth from conquest represents Him as
seated on a white horse. In the parade
of Heaven the Bible makes us hear the
clicking of hoofs on the golden pave
ment as it says: ''The armies which
were in Heaven followed Him on white
horses" l should not wonder if the
horse, so banged, and bruised, and
beaten, and outraged on earth should
have some other place where his wrongs
shall be righted. l do not assert it
but say / should not be surprised if
after all, st. Johns description of the
horses in Heaven turned out not alto
gether to be fgurative, but somewhat
: literal.
AS the Bible makes a favorite of the
horse, the patriarch, and the prophet
and the evangelist, and the apostle
stroking his sleek hide and patting his
rounded neck, and tenderly lifting his
exquisitely formed hoof, and listening
with thrill to the champ of his bit, sc
all great natures in all ages have
spoken of him in encomiastic terms
Virgil in his Georgics almost seems tt
plagiarize from his description in the
text, so much are the descriptions alike
the description of Virgil and the de
scription of Job. The Duke of yelling
ton would not allow any one irreverent
ly to touch his old war horse Copen
hagen, on whom he had ridden fifteer
hours without dismounting at Water
loo, and when old Copenhagen died, his
master ordered military salute free
over his grave.
But what shall say of the maltreat
ment of this beautiful and wonderful
creature of God? If Thomas Chalmers
in his day felt called upon to preach d
sermon against cruelty to animals, how
much more in this day is there neec
of reprehensive discourse. All honol
to the memory of Prof Berg, the chic,
apostle for the brute creation, for the
mercy he demanded and achieved fol
this king of beasts. A man who owned
1000 horses, and some say 10000, wrote
in the Bible: "a righteous man re
gardeth the life of his beast" Sir Hen
ry Lawrence's care of the horse wal
beautifully Christian. He says: 81 ex
pect we shall lose Conrad, though
have taken so much care of him that hi
may come in cool. always walk hin
the last four or five miles, and as / wall
myself the first hour, it is only in thC
middle of the journey we get'over tht
ground" The Ettrick Shepherd, in hi
matchless "Ambrosial Nights" speaks
= of tho rna1trantmant of the horse az ,
practical blasphemy. do not believe