The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-03-02
The ,Mipisfer's Dog.
By Rev. DR.. Prime, Editor OF Christian
= Observer.

By Rev.. DR.. Prime, Editor OF Christian
NV father bad q small and beautiful
dog who rejoiced in the name of
Fidelity. he differed from other good
dogs only in being better than others,
and in manifesling something that
seemed like religious sensibility, or
q peculiar attachment to religious
places, people, and services. BE at
tended family woi ship with a punctu-
ality and regularity that other mem
bers of the household might we'll have
initiated, and certainly did not surpass.
If q stranger were prese nt-and much
company visited our house-the dogs
attention to him was regulated by
his taking the lead, or not, in the
religious worship of the household.
If the visitor at my fathers request
conducted the worship, the dog at
once attached himself to his person,
and when he departed the dog escorted
him out of the village, sometimes
going home with him TO a neighborlng
town and making him visit ofa few
days. If the visitor did not perform
any religious services in the house the
dog took no notice of him while there,
and suffered him to depart unattended
and evidently unregretted.
Such a dog was, of course, an
habitual attendant on. the public
services of the church on the Sabbath.
It required extraordinary care to
keep him at home. Shut up in q
room he dashed through a window,
and was at church before the family.
He was once shut up in an outhouse
that had no floor. He dug out under
the sill of the door and was at church
before the first psalm. In church he
occupied the upper step. Of the pulpit
within which his master ministered
He lay quiet during the sermon unless
other dogs below misbehaved, in
which case he left his seat, and after
|quieting the disturbance, resumed it.
He was equally devoted to the weekly
| prayer meeting which was held from
house. to. house, the appointment
being announced on the Sabbath
He remembered the evening and the
place, and was always present. AS Il
was not agreeable to have dog at ar
evening meeting in a private house he
was confined at home. The mex
week he went early, before the family
had thought to shut him up, anc
waited for the hour and the people
He knew the names of the families
where the meetings were held ant
where they lived, and could have gon,
to any of them on an errand as easily
and correctly as a child, and the onl!
knowledge he had of the place o
meeting he got as the others did. b.
I hearing the notice on Sunday. Thes
habits of the dog were not the fruit o
education. On the contrary, pain
were taken to prevent him from
indulging his religious preferences
j he did not manifest a fondness fo
other meetings or for any individual
out of the family circle, except thos
whom he recognized by their habi
of praying, as the people in whom b
was specially interested.
My father was wont to relate man
other anecdotes of this remarkabl
animal, and the relation of ther
. always caused his eyes to fill wit
teacs. He had a strong impression
that there was something very N.Y.
terious about this propensity of th
dog, and being himself sternl
B orthodox divine he never ventured
, express the opinion that the dog ha
moral perceptions-but / alway
J. thought he believed 30.