The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-15
DIR. TALMACE'S SERMON.
BY THE REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. D. D.

| FhG-NF 'aFNA''- Los Angeles, Cal. May8.-Kindness and consideration for all of Gods creatures is the preachers theme, and he pleads that man should value the affection or the dumb creation no less than he should respect it's rights. since divine wisdom has placed 1t in his care. The text is Deuteronomy xxv, 4, "Thou sbalt not muzzle the OK when he treadeth out the corn.
 This Is the age of machinery This is the time when man is not limited in his operations to the work of his two hands
 but with his little finger can lift lever
 which has the strength of a thousand
 hands; when, instead of his being content
 with seeing only such things as his eyes
 perceive, he calls to his aid the telescope
 and the microscope that multiply his
 power of vision a thousand fold. The old
 fashioned spinning wheel has been deyel-
 oped into the mighty Belfast linen mills
 the old-fashioned scythe has evoluted in-
 to the swift moving machine, which goes singing through the harvest fields l ht Viu-AaSlliOIltu pTdIlt ScHoOHVl h"S long since given place to the tireless vel ocity of the lightning express, which never stops by day or night except like thirsty monster. to take. The old fashioned messenger, who on horseback used to carry back to king the news of battle won, has been superseded by the telegraph wires and the electric cables, which in almost an instant can put con- tinents within speaking distance and have put the islands of the seas in com munication with the mainland
 The patent offices in Washington are crowdede with innumerable inventions for the saving of labor and time In hone or them, however. is the contrast be- tween modern and ancient methods so marked as we see it when the mammoth flour mills of Minneapolis are compared with the custom referred to in the text In that great city of the northwest not only is the grain almost instantly chang ed into flour by the best of modern ma chinery, but practically not one grain is lost. Upon the old-fashioned thrashng floor everything was different There a team of oxen would be ha-nessed 10 a collection of boards nailed toget ther Then these boards would be dra eeed over the grain and the chaff would be broken from the kernels of wheat. Then the winds would blow over the thrashng floor and separate the chaff front the wheat.
 Wisdom of Moses.
 Such were the thrashing floors of the ancients. Now as Moses went in and out of the country he saw great many of these thrashing floors. Furthermore he saw among their owners there were a great many mean men in those days, as fhPFn in that these mean men nearly always first showed their meanness to their beasts. They not only overworl<ed their oxen, but they underfed them Their meanness was most emphaticall demon- strated when thrashing Fearing least their hardworked oxen might reach down and pick up from the thrashing floors a stray mouthful of grain to eat. these mean farmers would muzzle their beasts so that the hungry animals could see the food and yet not eat any. Now. Moses says in a practical way: "These men must be taught to be merciful to their beasts have made a law requiring them to obey God and be just in their dealings with their neighbors. Now I will make another law requiring them to be liberal in their provision for the ami mals which work for them" Then the great law-giver of the Hebrews sits down and writes these words of my text: Thou shalt not muzzle the OK when he treadeth out the corn.'
 Moses was the first great statesman that l know of who recognized the rights Of dumb animals. It is a significant fact that in this early code of laws he should have given legal rights to ani- mals as well as to men and women. It was sound and righteous course and I ap pfa to have not only laws to prevent the in usage of dumb animals, but also in the Humane society an organization to see that those laws are enforced I want to show you this morning why every Chris tian should be in touch with that soci- ety and that it's principles should be ap- piled to all classes and all ages. There is no reason why the admonition should be limited to the farmer. The boy should be taught to be good to his pet dogs and squirrels; the drayman should be com pelled to tighten the load if his horse is too weak to draw it; the hackman should be required to blanket his steed shivering in the chill blasts of winter; the sports man should be prohibited shooting the mother bird in nesting time would try to show that the Christ that was born amid the lowing of cattle and the bleat- ing of sheep and the neighing of the horses. whinnying for their oats, Is to- day the friend and protector of the dumb brutes as well as of our fellow men.
 Cruelty Degrades.
 The Humane society of America should be accounted one of the best of societies. It's work has deeper and wider signi- ficance than some of us have heretofore supposed. The evil of cruelty to animals uyffh bn ipd of ot,, and injustice on the dumb brutes. But as the small fibrous tumor, nesting und- CT the fair skin, If let alone. may reach out its fatal roots toward the heart, so the evils of cruelty against dumb animals may at last reach out for the heart of man itself. Injustice against the dumb brute inevitably paves the way for in- justice against the dumb brutes master If a boy delights to torture a dog or cat or a mouse. there will surely come a time when that boy. grown into a man, will delight in torturing his fellow be- ings.
 mans nature Is degraded by indulg- ing in cruelty to animals. He loses his manliness and acquires the nature of brutes. He .undergoes in his lifetime the metamorphosis that the orientals believe he suffers after death. In the far east there is a popular belief held by the multitudes; 1t is belief in the trans migration of souls. This means in pop ular interpretation, that after a man dies his soul passes into the body of dog or a cat or a horse or lion and so lives on through the coming ages. If he is mean man then he becomes a mean beast like a iackal or hyena, if a good man then his soul takes upon itself the form of a noble beast: but though in Christianized America we do not be- lieve in the transmigration of souls we