SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 71, 10 August 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

OH! DUTY TO DUALB ANIMALS. A Sermon preached by Rev. A. 11. Colvile in St. Man':-, Church on Sunday, August 1. "Open thy mouth for the dumb."— Prov. xxxi.-S. The words are most suggestive when we think of our relations to all created things around us. Surely they are most. sugge.sti.ye when we think of the animals which many of us love, and which some of lis use every day of our lives. That man has a great responsibility for all the animals he uses, with which he comes in daily contact, second only to his responsibility for his fellow-men—l suppose we should all agree, though we don't always' act as if he believed it. If we would understand our duty to animals we must take not an emotional, but a sane and well-balanced view of the whole question. There are people who deliberately treat ■ animals- with cruelty, than which it ( seems to me there is no sin more detestable, and therefore people who are sentimental about them, which attitude, defeats its own purpose and turns pity into foolishness. To read our own feelings into the animals and pity them as we would pity ourselves is not only deteriorating to the animals themselves, but is crippling to our own usefulness in dealing with real eases of cruelty, and prevents us seeing life as a whole in a just and a right proportion. We have known women perhaps who can both feel and express an exaggerated love and pity for some particular animal, but who cannot feel one-tenth of that same love and pity for human sorrow and suffering. There may be some of us who, need to guard our feelings closely lestj they get out of hand, and rob our pity) of its value, ami destroy among other j things that very valuable possession—i 'our sense of humpr. Emotion, like so I many other things, is a good servant, I but a bad master. Surely, then, the ] right view to take of ] OUR RELATION WITH ANIMALS ' is one of profound responsibility, deepened by the knowledge that they have undoubtedly rights of their own, which they cannot assert, but which nevertheless exist, and which man may not in■fringe without doing harm to himself as well as to them.

What, then, are the "rights of animals"? Animals are most certainly, as we are, God's creatures. They, like ■us, are expressions of the thoughts of -the Creator. And the teaching that seems to run all through the Bible about them is this: They were given by the Universal Father to man to be his servants and helpers and friends, but in making that gift God has not withdrawn His love and protection from them. He has made MAX RESPONSIBLE for their happiness and well-being. Surely, then, animals have a right to as much happiness as is consistent with man's use of them. Now it is this sense of responsibility that man must have in his dealings with the animals that should prevent anything like reckless or deliberate cruelty. That sense of responsibility for them should be with you every day of your life to constrain you to pity, to "open your mouth for the dumb." Alas! how often has that responsibility 'been forgotten or deliberately ignored? .The unnecessary suffering of animals at' the hands of man is

A TREMENDOUS INDICTMENT, an indictment to which man will surely I have to answer before the judgment seat j of God. There is, I say, no sin more detestable than that of wanton cruelty to animals. It contradicts every manly instinct. How can a real sportsman be cruel to an animal? The very essence of a good sportsman is a keenness to play for the weaker side and to give to all fair play. Cruelty blunts all the finer feelings, it leads to the most horrible form of lust, it gradually makes) the heart cold and callous to suffering of every sort. -Personally. T would rather J make a close friend of a drunkard, a I gambler or a libertine than a man who was deliberately cruel to animals. There is no more subtle indication of a thoroughly repulsive character. \ PARENTS -MAKE A GREAT MISTAKE when they allow their children to treat animals badly. Such children should be taught what pain is by a sharp application of it to their own persons.' Tlio boy who is allowed to ill-treat an animal, because it is "only an animal" too often grows up to think ho can treat all things weaker than himself in the same way—including women. Children, especially boys, need very careful (raining in this respect. Tradesmen <ought to be particular about the boys to whom they entrust the driving of their horses, r myself have seen in this town tradesmen's carts driven by boys and youths whose main idea of driving 'seems to be to use the whip as frequently as possible. \ don't mean to say that I have seen in this town any bad cases of cruelty. I have not. ami lam ready and glad to say T have not. But in country places especially there is a cood deal of

SECRET AND UNNECESSARY CRUELTY

which only an expert can detect. Therefore T say that in every district there should he a hranch of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals —that Society which has done so much to livinjj home to people a sense of responsihility towards the animals they use. and has protected the animals themselves.

Since preaching this sermon I have boon informed that an attempt was once made to start a branch of that Society in this district, but it fell through through lack of support. Surely a lamentable state of things. Tt cannot be that we think it too small a matter about which to trouble ourselves. Pope l'ius IX. refused to allow a branch of that Society to be initiated in Rome. ''Xon sono Christiani" —"they are not Christians." was the reason he gave for his refusal. Tt is true. Animals are not Christians, but it is because we are Christians that we are constrained to pity and protect them. Tt is because we are of the company of Christ that we "open our mouths for the dumb." We know that, there is much XFCF.SSAP.Y ST'FFEPJXC, among animals. The apparently inevitable paid in the animal kingdom often startles and horrifies us. The zoologist can each us of this better than the preacher. But one thing is certain—that man has often caused not inevitable but unnecessary pain and suffering to animals, and for that he may not make the great Creator responsible. The whole creation," says St. Paul, "groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now"--waiting for what? 'Waiting for that day when all cruelty shall eease, and man shall have proved himself to be a. true son of that great Father who has shown in Jesus Christ His love and pity and compassion for all the creatures he has made.

j MAX'S DUTY. | Meanwhile, if you would bring Unit ', day nearer, if you would show yomvi'lf a \ true child of (,!od, "open your mouth for i the dumb." Do your utmost to make ! the world happier for those patient, humble, useful, beautiful feljow-creatures of ours, whose ''silence is heard only of God.'' who cannot form combinations to protect themselves. Protect them from all who thoughtlessly or wantonly make their lives a curse to them. Perhaps in a higher and a better world they will , thank you. I love to believe it posI sible; I love to believe that God will ever he the God for all His creatures; that in Wis hand will remain for ever 'the soul of every living thing. For I remember St. John's wondeiful and prophetic vision of the after-life—"And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such 1 as are in the sea, T heard saying, 'Blessing and honor and glory and power he unto TTim Who sitteth on the throne for ever and ever. Amen.'"