The Yale expositor., 1898-10-07

mage, drawing his illustrations from
deer-hunt, in this discourse calls all
the pursued and troubled of the earth
to come and Stake their thirst at the
deep river Of Divine comfort. Text:
Psalms AZ: L: "As the hart panteth
after the water brooks, so panteth my
soul after thee. o God"
David, who must some time have
seen a deer-hunt, points us here to
hunted stag making for the water.
The fascinating animal called in my
text the hart is the same animal that
in sacred and profane literature is
called the stag, the roebuck, the hind,
the gazele, the reindeer In Central
Syria, in Bible times, there were whole
pasture-fields of them as Solomon sug-
gests when he says, II charge you by
the binds of the field" Their antlers
jutted from the long grass as they lay
down. No hunter who has been long
in John Browns tract" will wonder
that in the Bible they were classed
among clean animals, for the dews, the
showers, the lakes washed them as
clean as the sky. When Isaac, the pa
triarch, longed for venison, Esau shot
and brought home a roebuck. Isaiah
compares the sprightliness of the re-
stored cripple of millennial times to
the long and quick jump OF the stag,
saying, 1.-THE lame shall leap as the
hart" Solomon expressed his disgust
st hunter who having shot deer is
too lazy TO cook it, saying THE sloth
full man, roasteth not that which he
took in hunting"
But one day, David, while far from
the home from which he had been
driven, and sitting near the mouth of
lonely cave where he had lodged. and
on the banks of a pond or river, hears
pack OF hounds in swift pursuit. Be
cause OF the previous silence of the
forest the clangor startles him, and he
says to himself: 81 wonder what
those dogs are after?" Then there is
cracking in the brushwood and the
loud breathing Of some rushing won
der of the woods, and the antlers Of
deer rend the leaves of the thicket. and
by an instinct which all hunters rec
ognize the creature plunges into a pool
or lake or river to cool its thirst. and
at the same time by it's capacity for
swifter and longer swimming to get
away from the foaming barriers. Da-
vid says to himself AHA. that Is my
self! Saul after me, Absalom after
me, enemies without number after me;
I am chased their bloody muzzles at
my heels, barking at my good name,
barking after my body, barking after
my soul. oh, the hounds, the hounds!
But look there" says David to him
self; chat reindeer has splashed into
the water 1t puts its hot lips and nos
trils into the cool wave that washes its
lathered TANKS, and it swims away
from the fiery CANNES. and 1t is free
at last Oh, that l might find in the
deep, wide lake of Gods mercy and
consolation escape from my pursuers!
Oh, for the waters of life and rescue!
AS the hart panteth after the water
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,
o Cod"
The Adirondacks are now populous
with hunters, and the deer are being
slain by the score. Taking one sum-
mer with a hunter, I thought l would
like to see whether my text was accu-
rate in its allusion, and as I heard the
dogs baying a little way off and sup
posed they were on the track of deer
I said to one Of the hunters in rough
corduroy: do the deer always make
for water when they are pursued?" He
said: "Oh, yes, Mister; you see they
are a hot and thirsty animal, and they
know where the water is, and when
they hear danger in the distance they
lift their antlers and sniff the breeze
and start for the Racquet or Loon or
Saranac: and we get into our cedar
shell boat or stand by the runway
with rifle loaded and ready to blaze
away"
My friends, that is one reason why l
like the Bible so much-its illusions
are so true to nature. It's partridges
are real cartridges, its ostriches real
ostriches, and its reindeer real rein
deer. I do not wonder that this an
TERED glory of the text makes the
hunters eye sparkle and his cheek
glow anu HIS quiNhCh. "
say. nothing Of its usefulness, although
II Is the most useful of all game, its
flesh delicious, its skin turned into hui
man apparel, its sinews fashioned into
bow-strings, its antlers putting han
dies on cutlery, and the shavings OF its
horn used as pungent restorative, the
name taken from the hart and called
hartshorn. But putting aside its use
fulness, this enchanting creature
seems made out of gracefulness and
elasticity. What an eye, with liquid
brightness as IL gathered up from a
hundred lakes at sunset! The horns,
a coronal branching into every posi-
BILE curve, and after it seems complete
ascending into other projections of ex-
quisiteness, tree Of polished bone,
uplifted in pride, or swung down for
awful combat. The hart is velocity en-
bodied. Timidity impersonated. The
enchantment of the woods. It's eye
lustrous in life and pathetic in death.
The splendid animal complete
rhythm Of muscle, and bone, and color,