Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-10-19
SERMONS OF THE DAY

OetbuutOuuO W ss6 sss
Subject: "The Hounded Reindeer'-Iet
Those who Arc Pursued by the Hounds
Of Persecution Run to tho Glorious
Lake OF Divine SOlace.
TEXT: .'As the hart panteth after the
water brooks, so panteth my soul after
Thee, o God."--Psa. Kill, ].
David. who must some time have seen a
deer-hunt, points US here to hunted
stag making for the water. The fascinat-
ing animal called in my text the hart Is the
same animal that in sacred and prOfane
literature is called the stag, the roet uck,
the hind, the gazelle, the reindeer. In
Central Syria, In Bible times. there were
whole pasture-fields Of them, as Solomon
suggests when he says, II charge you by
the kinds of the field" Their antlers jutted
from 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 restored cripple OF
millennial times to the long and quick
jump of the stag, saying, "The lame shall
leap as the hart" Solomon expressed his
disgust at hunter who having shot deer
is too lazy TO cook 1t, saying, 1.-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. Because Of the previous ST.
lence of the forest the ,lanSor startles him,
and he says to himself: II wonder what
cracking In the brushwood, and the loud
breathing Of some rushing wonder OF the
woods, and the antlers Of Il deer rend the
leaves of the ticket, and by an instinct
which all hunters recognize the creature
plunges into pool or lake or river to cool
its thirst, and ut the same time by its ca
pacity for swifter and longer swimming to
get away from the foamiDg barriers. David
says to himself: Aha, that is myself Saul
after me, Absalom after me, enemies with
out number after me; 1 am chased; their
bloody muzzles at my heels, barking ut my
ng after my soul. Oh, the hounds, the
hounds! But look there" says David to
himself. 'That reindeer has splashed into
the water. 1t puts its hot lips and nostrils
into the cool wave that washes its leathered
flanks. and 1t swimS away from this fiery
canines and it is free at last. Oh, that
might find in the deep, wide lake of Gods
mercy and consolation escape from my
pursuersI 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 populous with
hunters, and the deer are being slain BY the
score. Talking one summer with hunter
l thought l would like to see whether my
| text was accurate in its allusion, and as
heard the dogs baying u little way off and
supposed they were on the track OF q deer,
l said to one of the hunters In rough cor.
duroy: "DO the deer always make for wa.
ter when they are pursued?" He said: "Oh
| yes, Mister; you see they are a hot and
| thirty 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 Raquet or Loon oil
| SGraGIc; and We get into our cedar shell.
boat or stand by Tie runaway with rife
| loaded and ready to blaze away"
! My friends, that is ono reason why like
| the Bible SO nich-its illusions are so tru,
to nature. Its partrides a.e real partridges
its ostriches real Ostriohes, and its rein
| deer real reindeer. / do not wonder thai
this antlered glory of the text makes tn,
hunters eye sparkle aud his cheek glow
and his respiration quicken. To say moth
ing of its usefulness, although it Is tn,
| most useful OF all game, its flesh delicious
its skin turned into human apparel, it
sinews fashioued into bow-strings. 1T
y
| shavings of its horn used as a pungen
| restorative, the name taken from the har
and called harishorn. But putting asid
its usefulness, this enchanting creatur,
seems made out Of gracefulness ant
elasticity What an eye, with liuui,
| brightness as II gathered up from a hun
dred lakes ut sunset! The horns, a corona
branching into every possible curve, an,
| after 1t seems complete ascending int,
other projections OF exquisiteness, a tree o
polished bone, uplifted in pride, or SWUNG
down for awful combat. The hart is velocity
embodied. Timidity, impersonated. Tn,
encbantment of the woods. Its ey,
lustrous in life and pathetic in death. TIL,
| splendid animal q complete rhythm O
muscle and bone, and color, and attitude
| and iocomotiOn. whether couched in tn,
grass among the shadows, or a living boil
shot through the forest, or turning at ba,
to attack the hounds, or rearing for IT.
last fall under the buckshot Of the trnpper
It is splendid appearance that tn,
painters pencil fails to sketch, and only
hunters dream on pillow Of hemlock q
the foot of st. Regis is able to picture
1t comes down ut eventide to the lake.
edge to drink among the lily pods and
with its sharp-edged hoof, skaters tn,
crystal Of Long Lake, 1t Is very picturesque
But only when, after miles of pursuit, will
heaving sides and lolling tongue and eye
EWIiutUInE Ill utdtH LILO Stdk ltdpS from TIL
cliff into Upper Saranac, can you realiz
how much David had suffered from hi
troubles, and how much he wanted Go,
when he expressed himself in the words o
the text: GAS the hart panteth after tn
water brooks, so panteth my soul afte
Thee, o God"
Well, now. let all those who have comm:
after them the lean hounds Of poverty, o
the black hounds of persecution, or tn
spotted hounds of vicissitude, or the pal
hounds of death, or who are in any wis
pursued, run to the wide, deep, gloriOu
lake of divine solace and rescue. Tn
most OF the men and women whom / hap
now, have had trouble after them, sharp
muzzled troubles, swift troubles, all de
vouring troubles. Many Of you have mad
the mistake Of trying to fight them
Somebody meanly attacked you, and yo
attacked them; they deprecated YOU, yo
deprecated them; or they overreached yo
in bargain, and you tried, in Wall stree
parlance, to get n corner on them; or yo
have had a bereavement, and. instead c
being submissive, you are fighting that be
reavement, you charge on the doctors VIII
failed to effect n cure; or you charge o
the carelessness of the railroad compan
through which he accident occurred; o
you are n chronic invalid. and you fire.
and worry, and scOld, and wonder why yo
cannot be we'll like other people, and yo
angrily blame the neuralgia. or the laryr
| gifts or the ague or the sick headach
saw whole chains Of lakes in the Adir
ondacks, and from one height You can Sc
thirty. and there are said to be over eigt
hundred In the great wilderness OF Ne
York. So near are they to each other tha
your mountain guide picks up and carrie
the boat from lake to lake, the small di
. tance between them for that reason calle
carry" And the realm OF Gods WOr
Is one long chain OF bright, refreshin
lakes; each promise a lake, very sho
carry between them. AMI though for ag'
the pursued have been drinking ont
them, they are full to the top of the gree
banks, and the same David describe
them, and they seem so near together tn:
in three different places he speaks of the
as u continuous river saving: ''fhere *
river, the streams whereof shalt inak
, giad the city of Coli" Thou shalt MAJ
them drink OF the rivers of Thy pleasures
's,TEou greatly enricbest 1t with the riv