The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-10-29
SOLACE AND RESCUE.
Where the Oppressed Of the Earth
May Find Solace.
Rev. DIR. TaImage Presents the Divine
Haven as the Refuge Wherein tho
Hunted of the Earth May
Find Rest and Peace.


Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
lowing sermon, calls all of the pur-
sued and troubled of the earth &c
come and slake their thirstat the deep
river of divine comfort. The text:
AS the hart panteth after water
brooks, SO panteth my soul after thee,
o God.
David, who must some time have
seen deer hunt, points us here to a
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 roe buck, the hind,
the gazelle, 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 kinds of the field" Their ant
lers 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 patriarch, longed for ven
ison, Esau shot and brought home u
roe buck. Isaiah compares the
sprightliness of the restored cripple of
millennial times to the long and quick
jump of the stag, saying: "The lame
shall leap as the hart" Solomon ex-
pressed his disgust at hunter who,
having shot deer, is too lazy to cook
it, saying: 1.-THE slothful man roast
eth not that which he took in hunt
ing"
But one day David, while far from
the home which he had been driven,
and sitting near the mouth of lone
ly cave where he had lodged, and on
the banks of pond or river, hears a
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
a cracking in the brushwood, and the
loud breathing of some rushing Won
der of the woods, and the antlers of a
deer rend the leaves of the thicket,
and by an instinct which all hunters
recognize the creature plunges into a
pool or lake or river to cool it's thirst,
and at the same time by its capacity
for swifter and longer swimming to
get away from the foaming barriers.
David says to himself: "Aha, that is
myself! Saul after me, Absalom after
me, enemies without number after me;
l 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; ''that reindeer has splashed into
the water. 1t puts it's hot lips and
nostrils into the cool wave that washes
its lathered TANKS, and it swims away
from the fiery CANNES, and it is free
at last. Oh, that ] 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. Talking one sum
mer with hunter, I thought would
like to see whether my text was &C
curate in it's allusion, and as heart
the dogs baying little way off ant
supposed they were on the track of {
deer, | sail to one of the hunters il
rough corduroy: do the deer al
ways make for water when they ART
pursued?" He said: "Oh, yes, mis-
ter; you see they are hot and thirsty
animal, and they know where the wa
ter is, and when they hear danger il
the distance they lift their antlers ant
sniff the breeze and start for thu
Racquet or the Loon or Saranac; ant
we get into our cedar shell boat o.
stand by the runaway with riff,
loaded and ready to blaze away"
Ny friends, that is one reason why
like the Bible so much-its allusior.s
are so true to nature. Its partridge'
are real cartridges, its ostriches rea
ostriches, and it's reindeer real rein
deer. ] do not wonder that this an
TERED glory of the teXt makes tn,
hunters eye sparkle and his checl
glow and his respiration quicken. Ii
say nothing of it's usefulness, although
it is the most useful of all game, il
flesh delicious, its skin turned int,
human apparel, its sinews fashione,
into bow-strings, its antlers putin,
handles on cutlery, and the shaving
of its horn used as pungent restora
tive, the name taken from the har
and called hartshorn. But putin;
aside it's usefulness, this enchantin,
creature seems made out of graceful
ness and elasticity. What an eye, wit
liquid brightness as if gathered u
from a hundred lakes at sunset! TIL
horns, ceronal branching into ever
possible curve, and after it seems com
plete ascending into other projection
of exquisiteness, a tree of polishe
bone, uplifted in pride, orswung dow
for awful combat The hart is velocit
embodied. Timidity impersonatec
The enchantment of the woods. 1t
eye lustrous in life and pathetic i
death. The splendid animal a con
plete rhythm of muscle, and bou'
and color, ard attitude, and Iocomc
ix., .Iafb .nx.- l...l IL