Clerical Horse-Racing by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 23, 1873

Clerical Horse-Racing.

By Editor

. . . The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the Rev. W. H. H. Murray of Boston, and the Hon. George Loring, whom the papers mention as “Christian Statesman,” have united in the authorship of a book entitled, “The Perfect Horse.” It is devoted to the discussion of the points of a good horse, and vindicates racing, apart from its concomitants of gambling, drinking and rowdyism. Mr. Beecher declares that, “for the sake of social life, for eminent moral reasons, the horse deserves to be bred, trained, and cared for with scrupulous care; and if a minister can teach men how to do it, it is not abandoning his profession, but pursuing a remote department of it, which has too long already been left to men who look upon the horse as an instrument chiefly of gambling gains or of mere physical pleasure.” The announcement of this new and “remote” department of the ministerial profession will be greeted with a general horse laugh, especially around the stables where the thorough-breds are in training for the August meetings. We observe, also, that during the recent races at Buffalo, the Rev. Mr. Fletcher of that city attended the race-course every day, and, as he afterwards informed his scandalized congregation, he derived much pleasure from the rivalry of the noble animals, and his enjoyment would have been entire but for the presence of the gambling fraternity. It would not be surprising if a little longer acquaintance would entirely overcome this inconvenient disgust, and even enable him to venture something in the pool without the slightest qualms. Many a troublesome conscience has been gradually quieted in this way, and, so far as known, gave its owner no further annoyance. Mr. Fletcher may be assured, too, that when he has a few dollars—the more the better—at stake his interest in the race will be immeasurably increased, and his wonder will be how he formerly took so much interest in the mere “rivalry of the noble animals.”—Christian Statesman.