The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-10-25
A GROWING SIN.
DR.. Talmage Discourses Upon the
Evils of the Speed Ring.
A Tribute to the Horse but Protest
Against the Gambling Methods OF
the Race COurse-The Road
to Destruction.

Witt Talmage was upon THE DisSipa-
tious of the Race Course" His text
was from Job xxx, 19-21-25: 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" Following is the sermon:
We have recently had long columns
of intelligence from the race-course,
and multitudes flocked 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 fleet
ness is an iniquity instead of COM
mendable virtue-at such time SER
mon is demanded of every minister
who would like to defend public morals
on the one hand, and who is not will
ing to see an unrighteous abridge-
ment of innocent amusement on the
other. In this discussion l shall fol-
low no sermonic precedent. but will
give independently what 1 consider
the Christian and common sense view
of this potent. all absorbing and agit-
tating question of the turf
There needs TO be a redistribution of
coronets in 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 in
a small scale. the centaur of olden
times, part horse and part man, seems
to be a suggestion of the fact that the
horse is something more than a 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 cat
tie, and what Landseer did for the dog,
Job with mightier pencil does for the
horse. Lightweight times does the
Bible speak of him. He comes into
every kingly procession, and into ev-
cry great occasion, and into every tri-
umph. 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 vic
tory. Good Mordecai mounts him while
Hannah holds the bit. The church's ad-
vance in the Bible is compared to
company of horses of Pharaoh's char
lot 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"
81. John describing Christ as coming
forth from conquest to conquest repre-
sents 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 az 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 to
where his wrongs shall be righted. l
do not assert it, but l say I should not
be surprised if. after all, St Johns de-
scription of the horses in Heaven
turned out not altogether to be tigura-
tive, but somewhat literal.
As the Bible makes favorite of the
horse, the patriarch, the prophet, and
the evangelist. and the apostle strol1-
ing his sleek hide and patting his
rounded neck. and tenderlv lifting his
exguisitely formed hoof, and listening
with a thrill to the champ of his bit,
so all great natures in all ages have
spoken to 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 war-horse Copenhagen, on whom
he had ridden fifteen hours without
dismounting at Waterloo, and when
old Copenhagen died his master or
dered a military salute fred over his
grave. John Howard showed that he
did not exhaust all of his sympathies
in plying the human race, for when
sick he writes home: Has nv old
chaise horse become sick or spoiled?'
There is hardly any passage of French
literature more pathetic 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 st Romans Well" he orders the
girth slackened and the blankets
thrown over the smoking tanks. Ed
mund Burke, walking in the park at
Beaconsheld, musing over the past,
throws his arms around the WORKOUT
horse of his his dead son. Richard, and
weeps upon the horses neck, the horse
seeming to sympathize with the men,
cries. Rowland Hill, the great En-
glish preacher, was caricatured be-
cause in his family prayers he suppli-
Gated for the recovery of the sick horse,
but when the horse got well, contrary
10 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 Chalmers
in his day felt called upon to preach
sermon against cruelty to animals,
how much more in this day is there
need of reprehensive discourse. All
honor to the memory of Prof Bergh,