ON CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
In Numbers 22:28 we are reminded of the silent protest of the brute creation against the cruelty of men. From Numbers 22:32 ("Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times?") we may learn that this protest is heeded and supported by God. Cruelty of all kinds is one of the foulest of the works of the flesh, opposed to the character of God and to the instincts of humanity. Cruelty to animals is especially hateful, because of
I. THE WRONG DONE TO THE CREATURES
II. THE EFFECTS ON OURSELVES.
I. 1. They are our inferiors, therefore magnanimity and sympathy should protect them.
2. They are often helpless to defend themselves; cruelty is then unutterably mean.
3. Some of these animals are part of our property, and of great value to us, though absolutely within our power.
4. If they are not "wont to do so" when they provoke us, some good reason may exist which we should seek to discover. Therefore—
5. When tempted to harshness, short of cruelty, it is our duty to consider whether they need it, and in this sense deserve it. For—
6. Past misconduct of ourselves or of others may have occasioned their present obstinacy, through timidity or some other cause.
7. Animals suffer too much already, directly or indirectly, through men's sins (war, famines, &c.) without the addition of gratuitous cruelties.
8. No future life for them is revealed, so that we have the more reason for not making them miserable in this life.
II. 1. It fosters a despotic habit of mind, as though might and right were identical.
2. It hardens the heart and tends to nurture cruelty to men as well as brutes. E.g; the child Nero delighting in killing flies.
3. It still further alienates us from the mind of Christ, the character of "the Father of mercies."
4. It is a sign of unrighteousness (Proverbs 12:10), against which God's wrath is revealed, and from which we need to be saved by Christ (Romans 1:18; 1 John 1:9).—P.