Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-10-16
ICopyright, Louis Klopsch. 1921

copyright, Louis Klopsch. 1921
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15.-The gospel as
q great refreshment is here set forth
by DR.. 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 xiii, /, GAS the hart panteth
after the water brooks"
David, who must some time have
seen a deer hunt, points us here to
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
Eazelle, the reindeer. In central Syria
in Bible times there were whole pas
ture fields of them, as Solomon sug-
gests when he says, 81 charge you by
the binds 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 millenn1al times
to the long and quick jump of the stag,
saying, 1.-The lame shall leap as the
hart" Solomon expressed his disgust
at q hunter who, having shot deer, is
too lazy to cook it, 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 pond or river, hears
a pack of hounds in swift pursuit. Be
cause of the previous silence of the for
est the clangor startles him, and he
saws to himself, 81 wonder what those
dogs are after" Then there is
cracking in the brushwOod and the
loud breathing of some rushing won
der of the woods, and the antlers of
deer rend the leaves of the thicket.
and by an instinct which all hunters
recognize it plunges into q 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. l am chased, their bloody muZ-
zles at my heels. barking at my good
name, barking after my body, barking
after my soul. Oh, the hounds, the
hounds, But look therer says David.
%That hunted deer has splashed into
the water. 1t puts it's hot lips and
nostrils into the cool wave that washes
the lathered TANKS, and it sWims away
from the fiery CANNES, and it is free at
last. oh, that l might find in the deep.
wide lake of Gods mercy and cOnsOla-
ton 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 Godr'
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 l
thought l would like to see whether
my text was accurate in it's allusion,
and as l 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 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 in
the distance they lift their antlers 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 l
like the Bible so much. It's illusions
are so true to nature. Its cartridges
are real cartridges, it's ostriches real
ostriches and its reindeer real reindeer.
do not wonder that this antlered
glory of the text makes the hunters
eye sparkle and his cheek glow and his
respiration quicken, to say nothing of
ats usefulness, although it is the most
useful of all game, it's flesh delicious,
its 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 re-
Storatiye, its name taken from the hart
and called hartshorn. By putting aside
its usefulness this enchanting creature
seems made out of gracefulness and
elasticity What an eye, with a liquid
brightness as if gathered up from "A
hundred lakes at sunset The horns q
coronal branching into every possible
T.1IrYe and after il seems done aScand=