The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-11-23
THE HUNTS LESSONS.
Dr. Talmage breaches Upon the
Subject of the Chase.
The Gospel as q Refreshment Graph
ica1ly Set Forth-Refuge In Gods
Word for Those Pursued
by Trials.
Copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1882

Copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1892
Washington,
Tie Gospel as great refreshment is
here set forth by DIR. Talmage under
figure which will be found particularly
graphic by those who have gone out as
hunters to find game in the mountains.
Text, Psalm 42:1, "As the hart panteth
after the water brooks"
David, who must some time have seen
deer hunt, points us here to 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: 81 charge you by the hinds 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 among 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: 1.-The lame shall leap as the
| hart" Solomon expressed his disgust
at hunter who, having shot deer, is
| too lazy to cook it. saying: "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 pond or river, hears pack OF
hounds in swift pursuit. Because 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 cracking
| in the brushwood and the loud breath
ing of some rushing wonder of the
woods, and the antlers of deer reno
the leaves of the thicket, and by an in
stinct which all hunters recognize il
plunges into pond or lake or river te
cool its thirst, and at the same time
by it's capacity for swifter and Longer
swimming, to get away from the foam
ing barriers.
David says to himself: "Aha! That i!
myself! Saul after me, Absalon afte1
/ me, enemies without number after me
/ am chased, their bloody muzzles a
my heels, barking at my good name
barking after my body, barking aftel
my soul. Oh, the hounds, the hounds
But look there!" says David. "Tha
hunted deer has splashed into the wa
ter. It puts its hot lips and nostrils int
the cool wave that washes the latheret
fanks, and it swims away from thu
fiery CANNES, and it is free at last. Oh
that might find in the deep, wide lak'
| of Gods mercy and consolation escap,
from my pursuers! Oh, for the waters
| of life and rescue! AS the hart pantetl
after the water brooks, SO panteth m.
soul after Thee, o God!"
Some of you have just come from tn,
Adirondacks, and the breath Of tn,
balsam and spruce and pine is still OF
you The Adirondacks are now popu
lous with hunters, and the deer are be
ing slain by the score. Once while ther
talking with hunter thought woult
like to see whether my text was accu
rate in it's allusion, and as I heard tn
dogs baying little way off and sup
posed they were on the tracks of a deer
/ said to the hunter in rough cordu
roy: "Do the deer always make TO
the water when they are pursued" ?" H
said: "Oh, yes, mister. You see, the,
are hot and thirsty animal, and the.
know where the water is, and whe1
they hear danger in the distance the,
lift their antlers and snuff the breez
and start for Racquet or Loon or Sar
anac. and we get INTO our cedar shel
boat or stand by the runway with riff
loaded ready to blaze away
! My friends, that is one reason why
like the Bible so much. It's illusions ar
so true to nature. It's partridges are rea
partridges, its ostriches real ostriche
and its reindeer real reindeer. do nc
wonder that this antlered glory of th
text makes the hunters eye sparkle an
4 his cheek glow and his respiration
quicken, to say nothing of it's useful
ness, although it is the most useful 9
| oil game, its flesh delicious, its ski
turned into human wearing apparel, il
sinews fashioned into bow strings. ii
antlers putting handles on cutlery an
| the shavings of its horns used as n
storative, its name taken from the ha1
and called hartshorn. By putting asid
| its usefulness this enchanting cres
i ture seems made out of gracefulnes
and elasticity. What an eye, with
liquid brightness as if gathered up frol
a hundred lakes at sunset! The horn
q coronal branching into every possibl
curve, and, after it seems done, ascend
| ing into other projections of exquisit,
| ness, tree of polished bone, uplifte
III pride or swung down for awfdl CON
hat. It is velocity embodied, timidit
lmpe rsnnated. the enshan hnsnt q q