252 THE IMMORTALITY OF ANIMALS 



God makes a plain statement in His word as 

 to man's moral obligation to animals in the follow- 

 ing passage, " A righteous man regardeth the life 

 of his beast." This single passage most decidedly 

 proves that it is a part of a Christian's duty to 

 attend to the happiness of his own animals. 



We have as much right to take this statement as 

 a test of Christian character as any other state- 

 ment in the Bible. It certainly cannot afford 

 pleasure to a good man to see animals sacrificed as 

 victims to cruelty for any purpose whatever, and 

 the nature of man is nowhere seen in a more de- 

 grading light than when employed in exciting and 

 superintending the brute combatants in the arena 

 of animal warfare. I wish that it could be said 

 that such scenes were known only in the dark ages 

 and in barbarous countries. We despise the ambi- 

 tion of the conqueror who rides at the head of a 

 triumphant army, when he aims at renown, by 

 spreading around him misery and death, but how 

 infinitely more contemptible are those laurels which 

 are gathered in the contested fields of animal war- 

 fare, when the fierce antagonists grapple with each 

 other, and one or both sink in the agonies of death. 

 Most mean and cowardly employment! most un- 



