The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-10-14
A HUNTED RORBUCK,
REV. DIR. TALMAGE DRAWS A LES.
son FROM THE CHASE.
Man Is Like the Hart Fleeing From the
Dogs-Pursued by Sra, He Finds safe-
~ aud Refreshmen. IA tho Waters of
Eternal Lifcs

SteIndI AlIcs |
Copyright 1898, by American Press
Association.)
DR.. Talmage, drawing his illustra-
tons from a deer hunt, in this dis
course calls all the pursued and
troubled Of the earth to come and
Stake their thirst at the deed river
of divine comfort; text, Psalms xiii, 1, |
LAS 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 a
hunted stag making for the water. The
fascinating animal called in my text
the hart is the same animal hat in
sacred and profane literature is called
the stag, the roebuck, the hind, the ga
Zelle, the reindeer. In central Syria,
in Bible times, there were whole pas
ture fields Of them, as Solomon sug-
gests when he says, Il charge you by
the kinds 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
OL14Aolo col Iiiio " I'm "S'Sy
the showers, the lakes, washed them
as clean as the sky. When Isaac the
patriarch lOnged for wisdom, Esau
shot and brought home a roebuck
saiah the sprightliness of
the restored cripple of m%illennial
times to the long and quick jump of
the stag, saying, "The lame shall leap
as the hart" Solomon expressed his
disgust at a hunter who, having shot
a deer, is too lazy to cook it, saying,
THE slothful man roasteth not that
which he took in hunting"
But one day David, while far from
the home from which he had been driv-
en-, and sitting near the mouth of a
lonely cave where he had lodged, and
on the banks of a 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, Il 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 caves 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 it's capacity
for sWifter and longer swimming to
get away from the foaming barriers.
David says to himself: AHA, that is
JflySelI saul diIeE lie, ADSdlolll alter
me, enemies without number after
me; I am chased; their bloody muz-
zles 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 himself: that reindeer has splashed
into the water. 1t puts it's hot lips and
nostrils into the cool wave that washes
it's lathered TANKS and it swims away
from the fiery enemies and it is free
at last. Oh. that / might find in the
deep, wide lake of Gods mercy and
consolation escape from my p%ursuersi
Oh, for the waters of life and rescue!
AS the hart panteth after the water
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,
O God"
THE BIBLE TRUE TO NATURE.
The Adirondacks are now populous
with hunters, and the deer are being
slain by the score. Talking one sum-
mer with a hunter, I thought I would
like to see whether my text was accu-
rate in it's allusion, and as I heard
the dogs aging a little way off and
p they were on the track of a
deer, I said to to one of the hunters
in rough corduroy, DO the deer al
ways make for water when they are
pursued?' He said: ooh, yes, mis-
ter. You see they are a hot and thirsty
animal, and they known where the wa
III 80 civ " = tlICy iCdl dllSC1 II
the distance they lift their antlers and
sniff the breeze and start for the Ra-
Quet or Loon or Saranac, and we get
into our cedar shell boat or stand by
the runaway 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. Its partridges
are real cartridges, its Ostriches real
ostriches and it's reindeer real rein
deer. | do not wonder that his ant.
Tered glory of the tex makes the hun
ter'S eye sparkle and his cheek glow
and his respiration quicken. To say
nothing of its usefulness, although it is
the most useful of all game, it's flesh
delicious, it's skin turned into human
apparel, its sineWs fashioned into bow
strings, its antlers putting handles or
cutlery and the shavings of it's hOrr
used a pungent restorative, the name
taken from the hart and called harts
horn. But putting aside it's usefulness
this enchanting creature seems mad,
out of gr~acefulnesS and elasticity
What an eye, with a liquid brightness:
as If gathered up from a hundred lake
at sunset! The horns, a corona
branching into every possible curve
and after it seems complete a~scendin.
into other projections of exQuisiteness
a tree of polished bone, uplifted il
pride or swung down for awful com
bat. The hart is velocity embodied
timidity i~mpersonated; the enchant
ment of the woods. Its eye lustrous il
life and pathetic in death. The splen
did animal a complete rhythm of mus
Gle and bone and color and attitud
and locomotion whether couched in tn
grass among the shadows or a Twin
bolt shot through the forest, or turn
ing at bay to attack the hounds, o
rearing for its last fall under the buck
shot of the trapper. 1t is a splendi
appearance that the painters penci
fails to sketch, and only a hunter
dream on a pollow of henlock at tn
foot of ST. Regis is able 10 picture
When twenty miles from any settle
( ment It comes down at eventide to tn
lakes edge to drink among the lii
pods and with its sharp edged hoe
- IA-- L. :.