"In the first chapter of Genesis you may see that animals were placed on the earth before man was – the fish and fowl the fifth day, and the quadruped the morning of the sixth day, and man not until the afternoon of that day. The Whale, the eagle, the lion, and all the lesser creatures of their kind were predecessors of the human family. They have the world by right of possession. They have also paid rent for the places they occupied. What an army of defense all over the land are the faithful watch dogs. And who can tell what the world owes to horse, and camel, and ox for transportation? And robin and lark have, by the cantatas with which they have filled orchard and forest, more than paid for the few grains they have picked up for their sustenance. When you abuse any creature of God you strike its Creator, and you insult the Christ who, though He might have been welcomed into life by princes, and taken His first infantile slumber amid Tyrian plush and canopied couches, and rippling waters from royal aqueducts dripping into basins of ivory and pearl, chose to be born on a level with a cow’s horn, or a camel’s hoof, or a dog’s nostril, that He might be the alleviation of brutal suffering as well as the Redeemer of man.
Standing then, as I imagine now I do, in that Bethlehem night, with an infant Christ on the one side and the speechless creatures of God on the other, I cry, Look out how you strike the rowel into the horse’s side. Take off that curbed bit from the bleeding mouth. Remove that saddle from that raw back. Shoot not for fun that bird that is too small for food. Forget not to put water into the cage of that canary. Throw out some crumbs to those birds caught too far north in the winter’s inclemency. Arrest that man who is making one horse draw a load heavy enough for three. Rush in upon that scene where boys are torturing a cat or transfixing a butterfly or grasshopper. Drive not off that old robin, for her nest is a mother’s cradle, and under her wing there may be three or four prima donnas of the sky in training. And in your families and in your schools teach the coming generation more mercy than the present generation has ever shown, and in this marvelous Bible picture the nativity, while you point out to them the angel, show them also the camel, and while they hear the celestial chant let them also hear the cow’s moan. No more did Christ show interest in the botanical world than when He said, “Consider the lilies,” than He showed sympathy for the ornithological when He said, “Behold the fowls of the air,” and the quadruped world when He allowed Himself to be called in one place a lion and in another place a lamb. Meanwhile, may the Christ of the Bethlehem cattle-pen have mercy on the suffering stock-yard that are preparing diseased and fevered meat for out American households.
T.DeWitt Talmage 1872
A Working Dog's Oath
Standing then, as I imagine now I do, in that Bethlehem night, with an infant Christ on the one side and the speechless creatures of God on the other, I cry, Look out how you strike the rowel into the horse’s side. Take off that curbed bit from the bleeding mouth. Remove that saddle from that raw back. Shoot not for fun that bird that is too small for food. Forget not to put water into the cage of that canary. Throw out some crumbs to those birds caught too far north in the winter’s inclemency. Arrest that man who is making one horse draw a load heavy enough for three. Rush in upon that scene where boys are torturing a cat or transfixing a butterfly or grasshopper. Drive not off that old robin, for her nest is a mother’s cradle, and under her wing there may be three or four prima donnas of the sky in training. And in your families and in your schools teach the coming generation more mercy than the present generation has ever shown, and in this marvelous Bible picture the nativity, while you point out to them the angel, show them also the camel, and while they hear the celestial chant let them also hear the cow’s moan. No more did Christ show interest in the botanical world than when He said, “Consider the lilies,” than He showed sympathy for the ornithological when He said, “Behold the fowls of the air,” and the quadruped world when He allowed Himself to be called in one place a lion and in another place a lamb. Meanwhile, may the Christ of the Bethlehem cattle-pen have mercy on the suffering stock-yard that are preparing diseased and fevered meat for out American households.
T.DeWitt Talmage 1872
A Working Dog's Oath
I will lay down my life for you and expect nothing but love in return.
I protect my officer with my life, and would gladly take a bullet in his place.
I am sent in to find lost children and fugitives on the run.
I find drugs and weapons and even bombs.
I am the first sent in and sometimes the last to leave.
I am the nose and ears of my officer.
I will protect and serve him. I would die for him and for you.
I only ask for compassion and a kind word.
Author - Unknown
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