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

IN
here set forth by Dr.. Talmage, under a
figure which will be found particularly
graphic by those who have gone out
as hunters to find game in the noun
tains; text, Psalm xiii, /. LAS the hart
panteth after the water brooks"
David, who must some time have
seen a deer hunt, points us here 10 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 call
ed the stag, the roebuck, the hind, the
gazelle, the reindeer. In central Syria
in Bible times there were whole pas
ture fields Of them, as Colomon sug-
gests when he says, Il charge you by
the Minds of the field" Their antlers
jwtted from the long grass as they lay
!. down. No hunter who has been long
IN John Browns tract viii wonder
Nthat 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
Isaiah compares the sprightliness of
shot and brought home a roebuck.
the restored cripple of millennial times
10 the long and quick jump of the stag
saying. The lame shall leap as the
hart" Solomon expressed his disgust
at a hunter who, having shot a deer, is
too lazy to cook it, saying, The slOth-
full man roasteth not that which ne
took in hunting"
But one day David, while far from
the home from which he had been
driven and sitting neal the mOu of a
lonely cave where he had lodged and
on the banks of a pond or river, hears
a Vo1Ir &c bnrrn1C ~ cyEjf+ n1IrCI1it r.
cause of the previous silence Of the for
est the clangor ~startles him, and he
says to himself, Il 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 reno the leaves of the thicket,
and by an instinct which all hunters
recognize ut plunges into a pond or
lake or river to cool it's thirst and at
the same time, by it's capacity for
swifter and longer swimming, to get
away from the fOaming barriers.
TRUE TO NATURE.
David says to himself: AHA! That
is myself! Saul after me, Absalom
after me, enemies without number aft
er me. ! am chased, their bloody muZ-
zles ait my heels, barking ait my good
name, barking after my body, barking
after my soul. Oh, the hounds, the
hounds, But look there!" says David,
THAI hunted deer has splashed into
the water. 1t puts its hot lips and
nostrils into the cool wave that washes
the lathered TANKS, and it swims away
from the fiery CANNES, and 1T is free &.
last. Oh, that l might find in the dee p
wide lake of God mercy and cOnSOla-
tion 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
populous with hunters, and the deer
are being slain by the score. Once
while there talking with a hunter ]
thought I would like to see whether
my text was accurate in its allusiOn,
and as / heard the dogs baying a little
way off and supposed they were on the
track of a deer / said TO the hunter
in rough corduroy, DO 'the deer al
ways make for the water when they
are pursued?" He said: "Oh, yes, mis-
ter! You see, they are a hot and thirsty
animal, and they know where the wa
ter is, and when they hear danger ir
the distance they lift their antlers anC
snuff the breeze and start for Racque'
or Loon or Saranac, and we get into
III tSuCI oIiCll pohI vi olollN " Liz
runway with rifle loaded ready to blaze
away
My friends, that is one reason why
like the Bible so much. Its alluSions
are so true ITO nature. Its cartridges
are real cartridges, it's ostriches rea
ostriches and it's reinde real reindeer
I do not wonder that this antleret
glory af the text makes the hunter:
y sparkle and his cheek glow and hi:
respiration quicken, to say nothing o.
its usefulness, although it is the mos
useful of all game, its flesh delicious
it's skin turned into human apparel, it:
sinews fashioned into bow strings, it:
: antlers putting handles on cutlery anC
the shaving Of it's horns used as a re
Rstorative, it's name taken from the har
Tand called hartShorn. By putting asid,
its usefulness this enchanting creatur,
seems made out of gracefulness anC
elasticity. What an eye, with a liquiC
brightness as if gathered up from
hundred lakes at sunset! The horns
eoronal branching into every possible
curve, and, after it seems done, ascend
ing into other projections of exquisite
ness, a tree of polished bone, upliftet
in pride or swung down for a awful
combat! 1t is velocity embodied, ii
Nudity impersonated, the nchantmen
of the woods, eye lustrous in life an,
pathetic in death, the splendid anima
a complete rhythm of muscle n bon
and color and attitude and locomotior
whether couched in the grass amonI
the shadows or a living bolt sho
through the forest or turning at bay t
attack the hounds or rearing for it
last fall under the buckshot of tn
trapper.
1t is a splendid appearance, that tn
painters pencil fails to sketch, an
only a hunters dream on a pillow o
hemlocks at the foot of st. Regis |
able to picture. When, 20 miles fror
any settlement, it comes down at even
tide to the lakes edge to drink anon
the lilypads, and, with it's sharp edge
hoof, skaters the crystal of Long lake
it lis very picturesque. But only wher
after miles of pursuit, with heavin
sides and lolling tongue and eye
swimming in death, the stag leap
from cliff to cliff into Upper Sarana
can you realize how much David ha
suffered from his troubles and no,
much he wanted God when he express
ed himself in the words, "As the ha1
\ panteth after the water brooks. S
panteth my soul after thee, o God"