Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-11-11
THE DIVINE REFUGE.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Describes the
Haven for the Oppressed.
Sure RI fuge from the Hounds OF Perse-
cution, Viclssitude and Death In
the Broad and Deep Lake
Of Divine SOiace.

Of Divine Solaoe.
Rev. 4, Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
lowing sermon, calls all of the pur-
sued and troubled of the earth to
come and Stake their thirst at the deep
river of divine comfort. The text;
AS the hart panteth after water
brooks, 50 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 gazellc, the reindeer. In central
Syria, in Bible times, there were whole
pasture fields of them, us Solomon sug-
gests, when he says: ~ charge you
by the binds of the field" Their ant
lers juttcd 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
classcd 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 a
roe buck. Isaiah compares the
sprightliness of the restored cripple of
millennial times to the long and quick
jump of the stag, saying: "rhe lame
shall leap rs 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 a 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
Il 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 its 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;
] am chased; their bloody muz4les al
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 its hot lips and
nostrls into the cool wave that washes
its Iathcred TANKS, and it swims away
from the fiery CANNES, and ii is free
at last Oh. that | might find in the
deep, wide lake OF Gods mercy ant
consolation escape from my pursucrs!
Oh, for the waters of life and rescued
AS the hart panteth after the water
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee
o God"
The Adirondacks are now populou'
| ,x.,4I In 1oot. hi, ,
slain by the score. Talking one sum
mer with hunter, | thought | would
like to see whether my text was ac
curatc in its allusion, and as / heart
the dogs baying little way of ant
supposed they were on the track of {
deer, | said to one of the hunters il
rough corduroy: "Do the deer al
ways make for water when taey ar,
pursucd?" He said: ooh, yes, mis-
ter; you sec 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
snilr the breeze and start for tn,
Rnquet or the Loon or Saranac; anC
we get into our cedar shell boat OF
stand by the runaway with riff,
loaded and ready to blaze away"
My friends, that is one reason why
like the Bible so much-its allusiohs
are so true to nature. Its partridge
are real cartridges, its ostriches rea
ostriches, and its reindeer real rein
deer. | do not wonder that this an
TERED glory of the text makes the
hunters eye sparkle and his checl
glow and his respiration quicken. Ii
say nothing of its usefulness, although
it is the most useful of all game, il
flesh delicious, its skin turned int,
human apparel, its sinews Fashioned
into bow-strings, its antlers putting
handles on cutlery, and the shaving
of its horn used as a pungent restora
tive, the name taken from the har
and called hartshorn. But putin;
aside its usefulness, this enchantin,
creature seems made out of graceful
ness and elasticity. What an eye, will
liquid brightness as if gathered I'd
from a hundred lakes at sunset! Tia
horns, coronal branching into ever,
possible curve, and after it seems com
rlete ascending into other projection
Of cXquisiteness, tree of polishe,
lone, uplifted in pride, orswung dow
for awful combat. The hart is velocit
embodied. Timidity impersonated
The enchantment of the woods. 1t
eye lustrous in life and pathetic il
death. The splendid animal CON
plcte rhythm of muscle, and bone
and color, and attitude, and locomc
ton, whether crouched in the gras
among the shadows, or living Dol
shot through the forest, or turning Il
bay to attack the hounds, or rearin
for its last fall under the buckshot G