The Rev. Mr. Talmage on Horse Racing

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 85, 16 January 1892, Page 4

The Rev. Mr. Talmage on Horse Racing

— •— .-j-j : .'i '.'■/■< ■.■■■;■ ....;'_ /The Key. T. de Wits lahuage re- ■';" centjy /delivered a *' sermon' osf the . Brooklyn Tabernacle which I should like to commend to the'attention of those well-meaning but' mistaken peo.ple who. . suppose that- horse-racing in - iteelf is inconsistent with morality and detrimental to Christian principles :—- --" When there is a heresy abroad that cultivating it horse's fleetnessf is an iniquity instead of a commendable virtue, a sermon is demanded," said * the famous Divine, " from every minister who would like to defend the.-pub-lic morals on . the one: hand and who is not willing: to see ; an unrighteous abridgment -of "winpeent amusement on the other. There -needs to be. a redistribution of vtheHcorohefe' among the. brute creation.; -Fonages the lion has : been called ith'e kirig : ! of -beasts. I knock off. his coronet and put the crown upon the horse, in every way nobler, whether- in shape or sn^rit, ' or sagacity or intelligence, or. affection or usefulness. • He is . semi-human and knows how toreason pn ? a small scale. There is no more harm in offering aprize for the swiftest; racer than there is harm sA an agricultural fair in offering a prize to the farmer- who has the. best wheat, or to the fruit-grower who has -the largest pear.. Prizesby,, alktfieans, rewards -~bj r -aU s means; That is the way God cleyejope& the racQ, ajad -with-. : ;out .the prige/othe^hprsejsjflee:tness and beauty and •strength .will never be de- ; yelopedv < \ ;;If ] ijb I qosts : l.OOOdol. or SOOOdoL r or-l6,t)o.OddL,:and, the result be achieved, it is scheap. Whatever can be done .to develop -the horse's fleetness and strength and majesty 6ught^6befl6ne.M Thik;lbiig-tried and faithfuls servant. *>fthe f ' human race • rdese^wes aH^kindness and :'care.: ; 'Those farms in Kentucfey^alifdrhiayfcnd j in different parts of the^prth^where the * iborse'is drained 1» perfection^ fleetness *and; iii beauty and in majesty are weH'seV apart. ! : -There is a delusion abroad in the world that the thing musknecessarily-be good and Christian if it. is sl6w ; ; ancL dull a.rid plodding. There are very good people who .seem to imagine that it is humbly pious to drive • a; spavined, string-halted,/blind-i3taggeredjade. J '- - i : -\