The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-10-27

and you attacked them. Tney depre-
! ciated you, and o deprecated them.
or they overreached you In a Dargain
and you tried, in Wall street p~arlance,
to get a corner on them Or you have
had a bereavement, and instead Of be-
ing submissive you are fighting that
| bereavement. You charge on the doc
tors who have failed TO effect a cure,
or you charge on the carelessness OF
the railroad company through which
the accident occurred. Or you are a
chronic invalid, and you fret and wor-
ry and scold and wonder why you can
not be well like other people, and you
angrily charge on the neuralgia OF the
laryngftis or the ague or the sick
headache. The fact is you are a deer
at bay. Instead Of running to the wa
tiers of divine consolation and shaking
your thirst and cooling your body and
soul in the good cheer of the gosE1i
and swimming away into the mighty
| deeps of Gods love, you are lighting a
whole kennel Of barriers.
Some time I saw in the Adiron-
dacks a dog lying across the road. ana
he seemed unable TO get up, and L SUD
to some hunters, What is the matter
with that dog?' They answered, "A
deer hurt him." and l saw he had a
great swollen paw and a battered
showing where the antlers struck him.
And the probability is that some OF
YOU might give a mighty clip TO your
pursuers. You might damage their
business, you might worry them into
i'll health, you might hurt them as
much as they hurt you; but, after al
it is not worth while. You only have
hurt a hound. Better be off for the
Upper Saranac, into which the noun
tains of Gods eternal strength LOOK
down and moor their shadows. AS for
your physical disorders, the worst
s%trychnine you can take is f~retfulness,
and the best medicine is religion. L
know people who were only a little
disordered. yet have fretted them
solves into complete valetudinarianism,
while Others put their trust in God
and came up from the very shadow of
death and have lived comfortably %
years with only one lung. A man
with one lung, but God with him, is
better off than a goddess man With TWO
lungs. Some of you have been Tor a
long time sailing around Cape Fear
when you ought to have been sailing
around Cape Good Hope. Do not turn
back, but go ahead. The deer will &C
cOmplish more with it's swift feet than
with it's horns.
There are whole chains of lakes in
the A~dirondacks, and from one height
you can see 80 lakes, and there are
said to be over 800 in the great wilder
ness. So near are they to each other
thai your mountain guide picks up
and carries the boat from lake to lake,
the small distance between them for
that reason called a carry" And the
realm of Gods word is one long chain
Of bright refreshing lakes, each prom
Use a lake, a very short carry between
them, and, though for ages the pursued
have been drinking out of them. they
are full up to the top OF the green
lL.-1-- o-l tIo n.x;I ,Jn-ori1o>
them, and they seem so near together
that in three different places he speaks
of them as a continuous river, saying,
There is a river the streams whereof
shall make glad the city of Cod"
Thou shalt make them drink OF the
rivers of thy pleasures" Thou greatly
enrichest it with the river of God
which is full OF water"
BE WISE AS THE DEER.
But many of you have turned your
back on that supply and confront your
trouble, and you are sOured with yOur
circumstances, and you are fighting So
ciety. and you are fighting a pursuing
world, and troubles, instead Of driy-
ing you into the cool lake of heavenly
comfort, have made you stop and turn
round n lower your head, and it Is
simply antler against tooth. I do not
blame you. Probably under the same
circumstances I would have done
worse. But you are all wrong. You
need to do as the reindeer does in Feb
ruary and March-it sheds it's horns.
The Rabbinicai writer's aMude to this
resignation of antlers by the stag
when they say of a man who ventures
his money in risky enterprises he has
hung it on the stays horns, and a
proverb in the far east tells a man
who has foolishly lost his fortune to
go and find where the deer shed his
horns. My brother, quit the antag-
onism of your circumstances, quit
miSanthropy, quit complaint, quit
pitching into your pursuers. Be as
wise as next spring will be the deer
of the Adirondacks. Shed your horns
But very many of you who are
wronged OF the woodland if in any
assembly between the Atlantic and Pa
cific oceans it were asked that all who
had been badly treated should raise
both their hands. and full response
should be made. there would be twice
as many hands lifted as persons pres
emit say many of you would declare
W. a always done the best we
could and tried to be useful, and why
we become the victims of malignment
or invalidism or mishap is inscruta.
BILE" Why, do you not know that thu
finer a deer and the more elegant it.
proportions and the more beautiful its
bearing the % anxious the hunter:
and the hounds are to CAPTURE it?
Had the roebuck a ragged fur and
broken hoofs and an obliterated eyt
and a limping gait the hunters would
! nave said: "Pshaw! Don't let us vast,
our ammunition on a sick DEER AND
the hounds would have given a few
snifrs OF the track N then darted of
in another direction for better game
But when they see a deer with antler
lifted in mighty challenge to earth am
sky, and the sleek hide looks as il i
: had been smoothedxhy invisible hands
: and the fat sides fnclose the riches
pasture that could be nibbled from
, the bank OF rills so clear they seem t.
: have dropped out OF heaven, and tn
, stamp Of its foot defies the jack shoot
; ing lantern n the rife, the horn an,
q the hound, that deer they will have i
they must. needs break their neck il
. the rapids. So if there were no nobl
! stuff in your make up, il o were
= bifurcated nothing. il you were a for
: lorn failure, you would be allowed t