The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-10-30
RACE COURSE EVILS.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE DISCUSSES THE
SUBJECT OF TURF GAMBLING.

The Christian and Common Sense View of
Trials of Speed by the Kor,e--Sin Be
gins With Betting--The Way to Drive a
Horse.
New YORK, Oct. 20.-In his sermon
for today, Rev. DR.. Talmage discusses
a TOPIC which for months past has
been a familiar one in the daily press
viz, The Dissipatlons of the Race
Course" His text was Job xxNiX, 10,
81, 25: "Hast thou given the horse
strength! Hast thou clothed his neck
with thunder2 He paweth in the val
ley and rejoiceth; he goeth on to meet
the armed men. lie saith among the
trumpets, ha, ha, and he smelleth the
battle afar off. the thunder Of the cap
tains, and the shouting.
We have recently had long columns
of intelligence from the race course
and multitudes focked to the watering
places to witness equine competition,
and there is lively discussion in al
households about the right and wrong
of such exhibitions Of mettle and
speed, and when there is a heresy
abroad that the cultivation OF a horses
heetness is an iniqulty instead OF a
commendable virtue-at such time
sermon is demanded Of every minister
who would like to defend public NOR
ais on the one hand and who is not
willing to see an unrighteous abridg-
ment Of innocent amusement on the
other. In this discussion J. shall fol.
low no sermonic precedent, but VII
give independently what l consider
the Christian and common sense view
of this potent, all absorbing and agI-
tating 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 oil 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 semlhu-
man. and knows how to reason on
small scale. The centaur Of olden
times. part horse aud 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 ma
iestv, the painting Of his nostril, the
paving of his hoof and his enthusl
asm for the battle. What Rose Boa
heur did for the cattle and what Land
seer did for the dog, Job with mi ght-
ier pencil does for the horse. Eighty.
eight times does the Bible speak OF
him. He comes into every klngly
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. \ white
horse-that means victory. Good
Mordecai mounts him while Haman
holds the bit. The church's advance
in the Bible is compareu to a
company of horses OF Pharaohs
chariot. jeremiah cries out, how
canst thou contend with horses isa-
iah saws, "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 con-
quest 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 1t
saws, The armies which were in heav-
en- followed him on white horses"
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. I do not assert it, but say i
should not be surprised if, after all
st. Johns descriptions OF the horses IN
heaven turned out not altogether to be
| fieurative, but somewhat literal.
AS the bible makes favorite OF the
horse, the patriarch, and the prophet,
and the evangelist, and the apostle
strokine his sleek hide and patting his
rounded neck and tenderly lifting his
exouisitely formed hoof and listening
with a thrill to the champ of his bit,
so all great natures in all ages have
spoken of him in encomiastlc terms
Virgil IN his Georges almost seems to
| plagarize from this description IN the
text, so 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 war horse
| Copenhagen. on whom he had ridden
Is hours without dismountlng at wa,
terloo. and when old Copenhagen died,
his master ordered a military salute
fired over his grave. John Howard
showed that he did not exhaust all MS
sympathies in plying the human race,
| for when sick he writes home, HAS
nv old chaise become sick or spoiled:
There is hardly any passage OF treneh
literature more pathetic than the Ia
mentation over the death of the war
| charger, Marchegay. Walter Scott
has SO much admiration Tor tins dl-
vinelv honor creature of God that IN
st. Romans WelI' ne orders the
efrth slackened and the blanket thrown
over the smoking flanks. Edmund
Burke, walking in the park at Beacons,
field, musing over the past, throws ms !!
arms around the worn out horse OF MS
dead son Richard, and weeps upon the
horses neck. the horse seeming to
svmpathize in the memories. Row
land Hill, the great English preacher,
was caricatured because in his family
prayers he supplicated for the recov.
cry Of a sickhorse. but when the horse
got we'll, contrary to all the prophecies
of the farriers, the prayer did not
seem quite so much Of an absurdlty.
But what shall Isay Of the maltreat,
ment of this beautiful and wonderful
creature of God? If Thomas CHAIN
ers in his day felt called upon TO
4 To g, n