The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-10-25
AN ATROCIOUS EVIL.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON RACE COURSE
DISSlPATlONS.

An Apostrophe to Noble Animal-The
Question of speed-An Insidious Evil.
NEW YORK, Oct. 20-In his ser mon
for today Rev. DR.. Talmage discusses
topic which for months past has been
familiar one in the daily press-vlz,
1.-THE Designations of the Race Course. "
His text was Job xxx, 10, 81, %:
"Hast thou given the horse strength!
Hast thou clothed his neck with thun-
der? He paweth in the valley, and re-
ioiceth; he goeth on to meet the armed
men. He saith among the trumpets, ha,
ha and he smelleth the battle afar OFT,
the thunder Of the captains, and the
shouting"
We have recently had long columns
Of intelligence from tho race course
and multitudes f1ocked 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 heresy abroad that
the cultivation of horses f1eetness is an
iniouity instead of commendable VIZ
tue-at such a 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 abridgment OF Innocent
amusement on the other. In this discus
sion l shall follow no sermonlc prece-
dent, but will give independently what
I consider the Christian and common
sense view of this potent, all absorbing
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 I knock off its coronet and
nut the crown upon the horse, IN every
way nobler, whether in shape, or spirit,
or saRacity, or intelligence, or affection,
or usefulness. He is semihuman, 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 a beast. Job in my text sets
forth his strength, his beauty, his maj
esty, the painting Of his nostril, the
having 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 kmgly procession and into
every great occasion and into every TIL
umph. 1t is very evident that Job and
David and Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jere-
miah and John were fond of the horse.
He comes into much of their imagery.
A red horse-that meant war. black
horse-that meant famine. A pale horse
that meant death. A white horse
that meant victory. Good Mordecal
mounts him while Hannah holds the bit.
The church's advance in the Bible is
compared to company of horses OF
Pharaoh chariot. jeremiah cries out,
''How canst thou contend with horses?''
Isaiah says, "The horses hoofs shall be
counted as flint Miriam claps 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 a white horse. In the
parade of heaven the Bible makes us
hear the clicking of hoofs on the golden
pavement as it says, "The armies which
were in heaven followed him ON white
horses. - | should not wonder if the
horse, so banged, and bruised, and beat
en- 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 descriptions of the horses in
heaven turned out not altogether to be
figurative, but somewhat literal.
Encomiums on the Horse.
As the Bible makes 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
exuuisitely 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 Georges almost seems to plagiariZe
from this description in the text, sc
much 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 Copenhagen, on whom
he had ridden 10 hours without dis
mounting at Waterloo, and when old
Copenhagen died his master ordered q
military salute fired over his grave.
John Howard showed that he did not
exhaust all his sympathies in pitying
the human race, for when sick he writes
home, HAS my old chaise horse become
sick or spoiled?" There is hardly any
passage of French literature more pa
thetic than the lamentation over the
death of the war charger Marchegay
Walter Scott has so much admiration
for this divinely honored creature Of
God that in est. Romans Well'' he or
ders the girth slackened and the blanke
thrown over the smoking TANKS. Ed
mund Burke, walking in the park al
Beaconsfeld, musing over the past
throws his arms around the WORKOUT
horse of his dead son Richard, anC
weeps upon the horses neck, the horst