Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-10-25
SERMON
Rev. DR.. Calmlage

subject: The Water Brooks-The Gospel
OF Refreshment shows How We May
Elude tho Hounds of Trouble and
Safely Reach the Lake Of Divine Solace.
[Copyrigbs louis KIopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, u. C.-The Gospel as
great refreshment Is here set forth by DIR.
Talmage, under a figure which will be
found particularly graphic by those who
have gone out rs hunters to find game in
the mountains; teat, Psalm Kill, l, Gas 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 fascinating ami
NAL, called In my text the hart, Is the same
animal that In sacred and profane lltera-
ture Is called the stag. the roebuck, the
hind, the gazelle, the rciudeer. In central
Syria In Bible times there were whole pas
ture fields o. them, as Solomon suggests
when he says Il charge You by the hinds
OF the fielc. fheir antler3 jutted from
the long grass as they lay down. No hunter
who has been long in "j ohm Browns tract"
will wonder that In the Bible they were
classed among clean animals, for tho dews,
the showers, the lakes, washed them as
clean as the sky. When Isaac, the patri-
arch, longed for venison. Esau shot and
brought home a roebuck. Isaiah compares
millennial times to the long and quick
jump Of the stag, saying, The lame shall
leap as the hart" Solomon expressed his
disgust ut hun'er who, having shot a
deer, Is too lazy to cook 1t, saying. THE
slothful man roasteth not that which he
took In hunting"
, But one day David, while far from tn,
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 tho previous
silence of the forest the clangor startles
him, and he says to himself, "I wonder
what those dogs are after" Then there Is
q cracking in the brushwood and the loud
breathing OF some rushing wonder OF the
woods, and the antlers OF deer rend tho
leaves OF tn. thicket, and by an instinct
which all hunters recognize 1t 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 T.
myself Saul after me, Absalom after me,
enemies without number after me. / am
chased, their bloody muzzles at my heels,
barking at my good name, barking after
my body, barking after my soul. Oh, the
hounds, the hounds! But look there!'
saws David, THAT hunted deer has splashed
into the water. 1t puts its hot lips and
nostrils into the cool wave that washes the
lathered fanks, and it swims away from
the fiery CANNES, and 1t Is free ut last.
Oh, that I might find in the deep, wide
lake OF Gods mercy and CO isolation es-
cape 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, 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 I thought I would like to see
whether my text was accurate In its aliu
sion, and as heard the dogs baying lit
tie way on and supposed they were on the
truck of a deer said to the hunter in rough
DO ttesdee- ways make fol-
as Ss, and :s. .sn. nss q; sss1 they
where the water is, and when they hear
danger In the distance they lift their ant.
lers and snuff the breeze and start for Rae
quet or Loon or Saranac, and we get into
our cedar she'll boat or stand by the runway
with riae loaded ready to blaze away"
My friends, that is one reason why like
the Bible so much. Its illusions are SO
true to nature. Its partridses are real part
ridges its ostriches real ostriches and Its
reindeer real reindeer. l do not Won
der that this antlered glory OF the text
makes the hunters eye sparkle and his
cheek glow and his respiration quicken, to
say nothing of its usefulness, althoul b it Is
the most useful Of all game, its flesh deli
cious, its skin turned into human apparel,
its sipews fashioned into bow strings, its
antlers putting handles on cutlery and
the shavfngs OF its horns used as a restora.
tive, 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 liquid brightness rs III
gathered up from hundred lakes Mt sun
set! The horns coronal branching into
every possible curve, and, after 1t seems
done, ascending into other projections OF
exquisitsness, a tree OF polished bone, up
lifted in pride or swung down for awful
combat 1t Is velocity embodied, timfdity
inpers onated, the enchantment OF the
woods, eye lustrous in life and pathetic In
death, the splendid animal a complete
rhythm of muscle and bone and color and
attitude and locomotion, whether couched
| in the grass among the shadows or n living
bolt shot through the forest or turning at
bay to attack the hounds or rearing for Its
last fall under the buckshot OF the trapper.
1t is q splendid appearance, that the
painters pencil fails to sketch, and only
, hunters dream on a pillow OF hemlocks at
the foot of st. Regis Is able to picture
When twenty miles from any settlement,
1t comes down at eventide to the lakes
| edge to drink among the lilypads, and
| with its sharp-edged hoof, shatters the
crystal OF Long lake, 1t Is very picturesque.
| But only when after miles Of pursuit, will
| heaving sides and boiling tongue and eyes
! swimming in death, the stag leaps from
| cliff to cliff into Upper Sarannc can you re-
| alize how much David had suffered from
| his troubles and how much he wanted God
when he expressed himself In the words
! AS the hart panteth after the water
brooks, go pantetE my soul after Thee, =
| Cod
Well, now, let all those who have coming
after them the lean hounds OF poverty oi
the black hounds of persecution or the
| spotted hounds Of vicissitude or the pale
| hounds of death or who are In any wist
pursued run to the wide, deep glorious
| lake OF divine solace and rescue. The
most OF the men and women whom l hap
| pen to know, at different times, IL not now
have had trouble after them, sharp
/ muzzled troubles, swift troubles, all de
vouring troubles. Many of you have
made the mistake OF trying to fight them
| s. melody meanly attacked you, and you
acked them. They deprecated you, and
you deprecated them, or they overreachet
you in a bargain, and you tried, In Wal
street parlance, to get u corner on them
| Or you have had n bereavement, and In
| stead OF being submissive you nre fighting
| that bereavement. You charge on the doe
tors who nave failed to effect cure, Of
you charge on the carelessness OF the rail
| road company through which the acciden
| occurred. Or you are a chronic invalid
and you fret ard worry and scold and won
der why you cannot be well like other peo
pie. and you angrily charge on the neu
ralgia or the laryngitis or the ague or th'
| sick headache. The fact Is you are dee
| at bay. Instead of running to the water
| of divine consolation and shaking you
| o,,A h0dv and gOul III
the good cheer Of the gospel and swim
ming away into the mighty deeps OF God
love, you are fighting u whole kennel
barriers.
Some time ago saw in the Adirondack
| q dog lying across the road. and he scenes
unable to get up, and said to some hunt
ers, "what is the matter with that dog?
They answered, "A deer hurt him." and
saw he had a great swollen paw and bat
tered head. showing where the antler
struck him. And the probability is thr
rome OF you might give mighty clip t
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