The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-11-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Great Preacher Makes an Flo
quent Plea for the Horse,
And, Incidentally, Tells OF Race Track
Eviis-The Wicked Ways OF Book
makera-The Horse Ina
War and Peace.


Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in his seFa
mon prepared for publication this week,
discusses THE Designations of the Race
Course basinF his words on the text;
East thou given the horse strength hast
/ thou clothed his neck with thunderS Ht paw
elh In the valley. and reioicetA: ne soeth on 70
meet the armed men, Ps saith among the
afar OF. the thunder OF the captains and the
shouting. job xxx, 70, ~ %.
We have recently had long columns
of intelligence from the race course,
and multitudes foclzed 20 the water
ing places TO witness equine compete.
tion, and there Is lively discussion in
all households about the right and
wrong of such exhibitions of mettle
and speed. and when there rs n heresy
abroad that the cultivation of a horses
heetness is an iniquity instead of
commendable virtue-at such a 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
abridgement of innocent amusement
on the other IN this discussion
shall FOLLOW no sermonic precedent
but viii give Independently what
consider the Christian and common
sense view of this potent, all-absorb-
ing and agitating question of the turf
There needs to be n redistribution of
cOronets among the brute creation.
For ages the lion has been called the
king of beasts. l knock off its eorohet
and put the crown upon the hOrse> in
every way nobler, whether in shSpe,
or spirit, or sagacity, or intelligence,
or affection, or usefulness. He is semi.
human, and knows how to reason on
small scale. The centaur of olden
times, part horse and part man, seems
TO Je a 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 hls hoof, anl
his enthusiasm for the battle. What
| Rosa BOnheur did for the cattle, and
what Bandseer did for the dog,
job with mighticr pencil does
for the horse. Eighty-eight times
! does the Bible speak of him.
lie comes into every kingly pro-
cession, and into every great occasion,
and into every triumph. 1t is very
evident thai Job, and DAVID, and
Isaiah. and Ezekiel, and jeremiah and
John we're fond of the horse. lie
Genes into much of their imagery. A
/, red horse-thRt meant war. A black
horse-that meant famine. A pale
horse-that meant death. A white
| horse-that meant victory. Good
Nordecai mounts him while Haman
holds the bit The church's advance
in the Bible is compared to company
1 of horses of Pharaoh's chariot. Jere-
miah cries out: "How canst thou con-
tend with horses?" Isaiah SAYS:
THE horse,s hoofs shall be
counted as flint" Miriam claps
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 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 it
says: ''Thc armies which were in
Heaven followed Him on white horses. +"
/ should not wander If the horse, so
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 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
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 exquisitely 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 en-
comiastic terms. Virgil in his Geor-
gics almost seems to plagiarize from
this description in the text, SO much
are the descriptions ali1e-the de-
scription of Virgil and the description
of Job The duke of Wellington would
not allow any one irreverently to
i touch his old war horse Copen-
hagen, on whom he had ridden
fifteen hours without dismounting
| at Waterloo, and when old Copenha-
| gen died his master ordered military
salute fred over his grave John
Howard showed that he did not eX-
haust all his sympathies in plying
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 litera-
ture more pathetic than the lamenta-
tion over the death of the war charger
Marchegay. Walter Scott has SO
much admiration for this divinely
honored creature of God that to
"St Romans Well" he orders
the girth slackened and the
blanket thrown over the smolS-
ing fanks. Edmund Burke, walk
ing in the park at Beaconsfield, mus
ing over the past, throws his arms
around the worn-out horse of his dead
son, Richard, and weeps upon the
horses neck, the horse seems to sym
pathize in the memories. Rowland
Hill, the great English preacher, was
caricatured because in his family pray
ers he supplicated for the recovery oi
q 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 maltreat-
ment of this beautiful and wonderful
creature of God? If Thomas Chal-
mers in his day felt called upon tc
preach n sermon against cruelty to
animals, how much more i'm this day
in there q need Of reprehensive dis.
course. AL honor TO Prot. Bergh. The
| chief apostle for the bruts creation