Kindness to Animals; Or, The Sin of Cruelty Exposed and RebukedCharlotte Elizabeth
Religion
Kindness to Animals; Or, The Sin of Cruelty Exposed and Rebuked
Charlotte Elizabeth
Animal welfare
Jack died of a slow decline. He had much pain, but I never saw him look
impatient or unhappy. He felt what David so beautifully describes in the
twenty-third Psalm: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me." He knew quite well
that he was going to die; but it never made him uneasy. He knew that God
was at peace with him, through the merits of the Redeemer; and he was at
peace with all the world. His dying pillow was not made a pillow of
thorns by the remembrance of having made any living thing suffer
torment; nor were his short sleeps disturbed by terrible dreams of what
he had forgotten until the time drew near to appear before God. I could
tell fearful stories of some who died as young as Jack, and whose
death-beds can never be forgotten by those who saw them. They had been
cruel to God's dumb creatures, and never gave a thought to what they had
done; but when death was near, when the poor weak body could not rise
from the bed, nor the soul be any longer deceived with the thought of
years to come, it was horrible to hear the cries they uttered, and the
wild things that they said about beasts, and birds, and insects tortured
by them in the days of their health and strength. There was one in
particular, a butcher's boy, who could not be comforted: he said, the
calves, the sheep, and the lambs, had provoked him by their
unwillingness to be caught and driven into the slaughter-yard, and he
had revenged himself by making their deaths as painful as he could; and
that he saw them then--whether his eyes were open or shut, he always saw
them--all bleeding, and torn, and struggling, as they used to do: and
whatever was said to him, or whatever noise was made, he heard their
cries of agony louder than all. When he was told that God was merciful,
he answered, "Yes; but I had no mercy, and there is no mercy for me." I
wish I could tell you that he died praying for pardon; but, alas! he
died shrieking out that he must go to hell. At that time, I was asked to
write a book about it, to warn others; but I was so much shocked that I
could not write about it. I mention it now, to show you that sometimes,
even in this world, the dreadful work of judgment is begun--judgment
without mercy, to those who show no mercy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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