Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-10-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE DEER HUNT LAST SUN
DAYS SUBJECT.
From the Bible Text: Psalms, Chapter
/ Kill, Verse 1. ms Follows; AS tho
Hart Panteth After the Water
Brooks"
(Copyricht 1899 by Louis Klonsnhl

deer hunt, points us here to a hunted
stag making for the water. The fas-
cinating animal, called in my text the
hart, is the same animal that in sacred
and profane literature is called the
stag. the roebuck, 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
the long grass as they lay down. No
hunter who has been long in John
Browns track" will wonder that in
the Bible they were classed as clean
animals. for the dews, the showers, the
lakes, washed them as clean as the
sky. When Isaac, the patriarch, longed
for venison. Esau shot and brought
home 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 ex-
pressed his disgust at hunter, who,
having shot deer, is too lazy to cook
~, soy ihS. uc Siolulul man TOdSteIu
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
a lonely cave where he had lodged,
and on the banks Of pond or river.
hears a pack of hounds in swift pur-
suit. Because Of the previous silence
In 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
wonder Of the woods, and the antlers
of deer rend the leaves Of the thicket.
and by an instinct which all hunters
recognize, plunges into pond 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:
I am chased, their bloody mugzles 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, that
hunted deer has splashed into the
water. 1t puts its hot lips and nostrils
into the cool wave that lasnes the
lathered TANKS, and it swims away
from the fiery CANNES. and 1t Is free
at last. Oh, that 1 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 God"
Some Of you have just come from the
Adirondacks, and the breath OF the
balsam and spruce and pine Is still on
you. The Adirondacks are now popu-
lous with hunters, and the deer are be-
ing slain by the score. Once while
there talking with hunter, / thought
] would like to see whether my text
was accurate in it's allusion and as /
heard the dogs baying little way off,
and supposed they were on the track Of
a deer l said to the hunter in rough
corduroy: do the deer always make
for the water when they are pursued?"
He said: ooh, yes, mister; you see
they are a hot and thirsty animal, and
they know where the water is, and
when they hear danger in the distance,
they lift their antlcrs and snuff the
breeze and start for Racquet or Loon
or Saranac; and we get into our cedar
shell boat or stand by the runway
with rifle loaded ready to blaze away"
My friends, that Is one reason why
I like the Bible so much-its illusions
are SO true to nature. Its cartridges
are real partridgcs, its ostriches real
ostriches, and it's reindeer real rein
deer. I do not wonder that this ant
Tered glory of the text makes the hunt
ers eye sparkle, and his cheek glow,
and his respiration quicken. To say
nothing of its usefulness, although II
is the most useful of all game, its flesh
delicious, it's skin turned into human
apparel, its sinews fashioned into bow
strings, its antlers putting handles on
cutlery, and the shavings of its horns
used as a restorative, its name taken
from the hart and called hartshorn-
by putting aside it's usefulness, this
enchanting creature seems made out
Of gracefulness and elasticity. What
an eye, as IL gathered up from a hun
dred lakes at sunset! The horns, a
roronal branching into every possible
curve, and after 1t seems done. ascend
Ing into other projections of exquisite
hess. a tree of polished bone. uplifted
In pride, or swung down for awful COM
bat. It Is velocity embodied. Timid-
lty impersonated. The enchantment OF
the woods. Eye lustrous in life and
pathetic in death. The splendid ami
NAL a complete rhythm Of muscle and
bone and color and attitude and loco
motion, whether couched in the grass
among the shadows, or a living bolt
shot through the forest, or turning at
bay to attack the hounds, or rearing
for its last fall under the bucksbot OF
the trapper.
1t is a splendid appearance, that the
painters pencil fails to sketch, and
only a hunters dream on a pillow of
hemlock at the foot of ST. Regis is able
to picture. When, twenty miles from
any settlement, it comes down at even
tide to the lakes edge to drink the lily
pads, and. with its sharp edged hoofs.
skaters the crystal of Long Lake, it is
very picturesque. But only when. after
miles of pursuit, with heaving sides
and lolling tongue, and eyes swimming
in death, the stag leaps from the cliff
into Upper Saranac. can you realize
how much David had suffered from
his troubles, and how much he wanted