Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-03-31

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lope or heifer or giraffe when from the jungle
a Numdian lion springs upon its prey. But
they get through with life. They lay down
in their magnificent lair They have made
their last sharp bargain. They have spoken
their last hard word. They have committed
their last mean act When a tawny inhabit-
ant of the desert rolls over helpless, the lion
ess and whelps fill the air with shrieks and
bowls and lash themselves into lamentation,
and it is genuine grief for the poor things,
But when this dead lion of monstrous useless
ness expires, there is nothing but dramatized
woe, for Better is living dog than dead
! lion"
| Ny text also means that an opportunity of
the living present is better than great OPP
| portunity passed. We spend much of our
time in saying: "If only had.n We can all
look back and see some occasion where we
might have done a great deed, or might have
effected an important rescue, or we might
have dealt stroke that would have accom-
plished a vast result, Through stupidity or
lack of appreciation of the crisis, or through
procrastination, we let the chance go by.
How much time we have, wasted in thinking
of what we might have said or might have
done! We spend hours and days and years
in walking around that dead lion. We can
not resusctate it. 1t will never open its
eyes again. There will never be another
spring in its paw. Dead as any feline terror
of South Africa, through whose heart thirty
years ago Gordon Cumming sent the slug.
Don't let us give any more time to the de-
ploring of the dead past. There are other
opportunities remaining. They may not be
as great, but they are worth our attention.
Small opportunities all around, opportunities
for the saying of kind words and doing of
kind deeds. Helplessness to be helped. Dis.
heartened ones to be encouraged. Lost ones
to be found. Though the present may be in
significant as compared with the past, "Bet-
ter is living dog than dead lion"
USELESS REGRET.
The most useless and painful feeling is the
one of regret, Repent of lost opportunities
we must and get pardon we may, but regrets
weaken, dishearten, and cripple for future
work. If sea captain who once had charge
of White Star steamer across the Atlantic
ocean one foggy night runs on a rock off
Newfoundland, and passengers and ship per-
ish, shall he refuse to take command of a
small boat up the North river and say: 81
never will go on the water again unless l can
run one of the White Star linep Shall the
engineer of lightning express, who at a
station misread the telegram of train dis
patcher and went into collision, and for that
has been put down to the work of engineer
ing a freight train, say: ~ never will again
mount an engine unless can run vestibule
express" Take what you have of oppor-
tunity left Do your best with what remains.
Your shortest winter day is worth more to
you than can be the longest day of previ-
Gus summer Your opportunity now, as
compared with previous opportunities, may
be small as a rat terrier compared with the
lion which at Matabosa fatally wounded by
the gun of David Livingstone, in its death
agony leaped upon the missionary explorer,
and with its jaws crushed the bone Of his
arm to splinters, and then rolled over and
expired but, Better is q living dog than
dead lion"
My text also means that the condition of the
most wretched man alive is better than that
of the most favored sinners departed. The
chance of these last Is gone. Where they are
they cannot make any earthly assets availa-
ble After Charlemagne was dead he was
set in an ornamented sepulchre on golden
throne, and crown was put on his cold brow,
and a sceptre in his stiff hand, but that gave
him no dominion In the next world One of
the most intensely interesting things | saw
last winter in Egypt was Pharaoh of olden
times, the very Pharaoh who oppressed the
Israelites The inscription on his sarcophagus,
and the writing on his mummy bandages,
prove beyond controversy that he was the
Pharaoh of Bible times. All the Egyptologsts
and the explorations agree that it is the old
scoundrel himself. Visible are the very teeth
with which he CRASHED against the Israeltish
brickmakers. There are the sockets Of the
merciless eyes with which he looked upon the
overburdened people of God. There is the
hair that foated in the breeze off the Red
Sea. There are the very lips with which he
commanded them to make bricks without
straw. Thousands of years afterward, when |
the wrappings of the mummy were unroled, |
old Pharaoh lifted up his arm as If in mplora- |
ton, but his skinny bones cannot again clutch |
his shattered sceptre. Hell a dead lion. And |
is not any man now living, in the fact that he
has opportunity Of repentance and salvation,
better off than any Of those departed ones who,
by authority or possessions or influence, were
positively leonine, and yet wickedl
A CHANCE TO BE SAVED
What thing to congratulate you on is |
your lifel Why it is worth more than all the |
gems of the universe kindled into one precious |
stone. am alivel What does that meant
why, IL means thaV sui nave an oPportun-
t1y Oh Delhg saved hyseil ana helping Others
10 pe saved 10 De ahVeI Nhy IL means
'hat nave yet announcer cnahce 10 correct my |
past mistakes ana make sure WORK ior heaven
awe are we' Come let US celebrate 1t by |
ne" resolutions, ne" sell examination new
CONSERVATION ana ne" career. Inc SMALLEST
ana most 'nSlgnincah' Couay Is worth 70 us
more than nVe hundred yesterdays 1aklng |
advantage OF tne present, let us ge5 pardon
Ior all inc !'"s1 ana security ior an the future
Where are our forgiven hnsI DON'T Know.