The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-11-06
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE
NOTED DIVINE.
Subject: 'sThe Designations or the
Race Course"

TEXT: "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 smeleth
the battle afar off. the thunder Of the can
tains. and the shouting" xxXix., 10,
81, %.
We have recently had long columns Of in
telligenca from the race course. anG 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 n heresv abroad
that the cultivation Of horses f1eetness is
an iniquity instead OF Il commenable virtue
at such q time sermon Is demanded OF
every minister who would like to defend
public morals on the one hand. and who is
not willing to see an unriGhteous abridG-
ment OF innocent amusement on the other.
In this discussion shall follow no sermonic
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 redistribution OF cor
onets among the brute creation. For ages
the lion has been called the king OF beasts.
knock off its coronet and put the crown
upouth horse, in every way nobler, whether
in shape, or spirit; or Sa2acity, or lptelli-
gence. or affection. or usefulness. He lS
semihuman, and known how to reason on
small scale. The centaur Of olden 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 maj
esty. the painting Of his nostril, the paving
of h Sc hoo fh,1ci
tie. 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 kingly possession and into
every great occasion and into every triumph.
It Is very evident that Job and David and
Isaiah and Ezekiel and jeremiah and John
were fond Of the horse. He comes into
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 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. "How canst thou con-
tend with horses?" Isaiah says. "The horses
hoots 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 hooss on the golden pavement as 1t says.
"The armies which were in heaven followed
Him on white horses" should not wonder
II the horse. 80 banged, and bruised. and
beaten and outraged on earth. should have
some other place where his wrongs shall be
righted. I do not assert 1t, but l say
should not be surprised If after all st. Johns
description Of the horses in heaven turned
out not altogether 20 be fgurat1ve but some
what literal.
AS the Bible makes a favorite OF the horse,
the patriarch, and the prophet, and the evan
geIist, and the apostle stroking his sleek hide
and patting his rounded neck, and teEderly
lifting his exquisitely formed hoof, and
listening with thrill to the champ Of his
bit. 80 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 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 Cop
enhagen, on whom he had ridden fifteen
hours without dismounting at Waterloo,
and when old Copenhagen died his master
ordered q military salute fred 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 my old chaiss horse become sick or
spoiled?" There is hardly any passage OF
French literature more pathstic than the
lamentation over the death OF tho war charg-
er Marchegay. Waiter Scott had so much
admiration for this divinely honored crea-
ture Of God that in "St. Romans Well'' he
orders the girth slackened and the blanket
thrown over the smoking fanks. Edmund
Burke. walking in the park at Beaconsfield,
musing over the past. throws his arms
around the wornout horse OF his dead son
Richard, and wesps upon the horses neck,
the horse seeming to sympathize in the mem
ories. Rowland Rill, the great English
preacher, was caricatured because In his
family prayers he supplicated for the recov-
cry Of sick horse, but when the horse got
well, contrary to all the prophecies OF the
farriers, the prayer did not seem quite so
much OF an absurdity.
But what shall say OF the maltreatment
OF this beautiful and wonderful creature OF
God? II Thomas Chalmers in his day felt
called upon to preach 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 Bergn,
the chief apostle for the brute creation, for
the mercy he demanded and achieved for this
king Of beasts. A man who owned 1000
horses, and some say 10000, wrote in the
Bible, "a righteous man regardeth the life
of his beast" Sir Henry Lawrence's care Of
the horse was beautifully Christian. "He
says: ~ expect we shall lose Conrad, though
have taken 50 much care OF him that he
may come in cool. I always walk him the
~ Ar-o mi n 7
the first hour, 1t is only in the middle OF the
journey We get over the ground" The Ett-
rick Shepherd in his matchless "Ambrosial
Nights" speaks Of the maltreatment Of the
horse as a practical blasphemy. I do not
believe in the transmigration OF souls. but I
cannot very severely denounce the idea. for
when I 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, it 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 and frozen and heated and
overridden-into an everlasting stage horse,
an eternal traveller on u towpath, or tied to
an eternal post, in an eternal winter, smit-
ten with eternal epizootics!
Oh, is it not a shame that the brute crea-
tion, which had the first possession Of our
world, should be so maltrealed by the race
that came in last-the fowl and the fish
created on the fifth day, the horse and the
cattle breathed on the morning OF the sixth
day and the human race not created until
the evening OF the sixth day? 1t ought to
be that il any man overdrives Il horse. or
feeds him when he is hot, or recklessly
drives nail into the quick Of his hoof. or
rowels him TO see him prance, or so shoes
him that his fetlocks drop blood, or puts a