The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-11-10
THE DIVINE REFUGE.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Describes the
Haven for the Oppressed.
Sure Refuge from tho Hounds of Perso-
cutioD, Vicissitude and Death In
tho Broad and Deep Lake
of Divine SOlace.

Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage, ir the fol-
lowing sermon, calls all of the pur-
| sued and troubled of the earth to
| come and slake their thirst at 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: Il 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 a
roe buck. Isaiah compares the
sprightliness of the restored cripple of
millennial times to the long and quick
jump of the stag, saying: 1.-The lame
shall leap as the hart Solomon ex-
pressed his disgust at a 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
pack of hounds in swift pursuit. Be-
cause of the previous silence of the
forest the clangor startles him, and he
says to himself: II 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
e recognize the creature plunges into a
e pool or lake or river to cool it's thirst,
= and at the same time by its capacity
n for swifter and longer swimming to
+ get away from the foaming barriers.
5 David says to himself: aha, that is
d myself! Saul after me, Absalom after
! me, enemies without number after me;
G | r bloody y,,,,zy1oc OF
n my heels, barking at my good name,
e barking after my body, barking after
# my soul. Oh, the hounds, the hounds!
d But look there" says David to him.
l. self; that reindeer has splashed into
n the water. 1t puts its hot lips and
l. nostrils into the cool wave that washes
$ it's lathered flanks, and it swims away
70 from the fiery CANNES, and it is free
o at last. Oh, that l might find in the
IS deep, wide lake of Gods mercy and
v consolation escape from my pursuers!
e Oh, for the waters of life and rescue!
r. AS the hart panteth after the water
s. brooks, so panteth my soul after thee
a O God"
d The Adirondacks are now populou.
p with hunters, and the deer are being
IS slain by the score. Talking one sum
r. mer with hunter, l thought l woule
N like to see whether my text was &C
n curate in it's allusion, and as l heart
h the dogs baying a little way off ant
N supposed they were on the track of I
y deer, | said to one of the hunters il
r. rough corduroy: ''Do the deer al
~ ways make for water when they ar
l. pursucd?' He said: "Oh, yes, mis-
NJ ter; you see they are a hot and thirst,
y animal, and they know where the wa
20 ter is, and when they hear danger il
IN the distance they lift their antlers an
~. sniff the breeze and start for tn
m Raquet or the Loon or Saranac; an
20 we get into our cedar shell boat o
stand by the runaway with riff
= loaded and ready to blaze away"
-, NV friends, that is one reason VIII
-. I like the Bible so much-its allusioI.
.s are so true to nature. Its partridge
- are real partridges, its ostriches re:
or ostriches, and it's reindeer real reit
~ deer. ! do not wonder that this III
or TERED glory of the text makes tn
bo hunters eye sparkle and his chee
;s- glow and his respiration quicken. L
,v say nothing of it's usefulness, althoug
nc it is the most useful of all game, i!
an flesh delicious, its skin turned int
of human apparal, it's sinews fashionc
ot into bow-strings, it's antlers putin
he handles on cutlery, and the shaving
tn of it's horn used as pungent restor;
he tive, the name taken from the ha1
III and called hartshorn. But putin
r, aside it's usefulness, this enchantin
mr. creature seems made out of graceful
ed ness and elasticity. What an eye, wi;
, a liquid brightness as if gathered ,
,r. from a hundred lakes at sunset! TT
II, horns, a coronal branching into evel
possible curve, and after it seems co,
plete ascending into other projection
of exquisiteness, a tree of polishe
en- bone, uplifted in pride, orswung dow
bi for awful combat. The hart is velocj
a,nhodied Timififv imnersonafe