The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-04-05
THE DEAD LION.
DE-. Talmage breaches From an
Unusual Text.
Tho Bible a Strange But Entirely Consist
emit Book-The World Full of Dead
Lions-Application Of tho Text
to Worldly Affairs.

Dead Lion and his text, Eccles. TX,
"A living dog Is better than q dead
lion" Following is the
The Bible is the strangest, the low
Hest, the mightiest, the weirdest, the
best OF books. Written by Moses the
lawyer, Joshua the soldier, Samuel the
judge, Ezra the builder, Job the poet,
David the shepherd, Daniel the prime
minister, Amos the h~erdsman, Mathew
the custom house officer, Luke the doc
tor. Paul tho scholar, John the exile;
and yet q complete harmony from the
middle verse OF the Bible, which Is
psalm cvxii, 8, both ways to the upper
and lower lids, and the shortest passage,
which Ia John XII, 35, to the longest
verse, which is Esther, viii, 0, and yet
an imperfeotion in all the IT'S, 893
words which 1t Is composed of. II not
only reaches over the past but over the
future; has In 1t a ferry boat as in Sam
uel ii, and a telegraphic wire as in Job;
and q railroad train, as In Nahum; and
Introduces to us O foundryman by tho
name of Tubal Cain, and a shipbuilder
by the name of Noah, and an architect
by the name Of Aholiab, and tells us
how many stables Solomon had to take
care of his horses, and how he paid for
those horses, But few things In this
versatile and comprehensive book in
terests me s much as Its apothegms,
those short, terse, sententious, epigram-
matte sayings, Of which my text is one:
"a living dog Is better than a dead lion"
Here the lion stands for nobility and
the dog for You must know
that the dog mentioned In the text is
not N of our American, or European
or Scottish dogs, that in our mind Is a
synonym for the beautiful, the graceful,
the affectionate, the sagacious and the
true. The st. Bernard dog is q hero,
and II you doubt 1t ask the SHOWS Of the
Alps, out Of which he picked the ex-
hausted traveller. The shepherd dog Is
q poem, and II you doubtitask the high
lands OF Scotland. The Arctic dog is
the rescue Of explorers, and II you doubt
IL ask DR.. Kane's expedition. The watch
dog Is q living protection, and II you
doubt 1t ask ten thousand homesteads
over whose safety he watched last night.
But Solomon, the author of my text,
lived In Jerusalem, and the dog he
speaks of In the text was a dog in Je-
rusalem. Last December / passed days
and nights within a stones throw of
where Solomon wrote his text, and from
what / saw OF the CANNES Of Jerusalem
by day and heard of them by night l
can understand the slight appreciation
my text puts upon the dog of Palestine.
II Is lear and snarly and disgusting, and
afflicted with parasites, and takesrevenge
on the human race by filling the nights
with clamor. All up and down the
Bible, the most Of which was written in
Palestine or Syria, or contiguous lands,
the dog Is used in contemptnous COM
p~arison. Hazael said: as thy servant q
dog that he should do this thing?" In
self-abnegation the Syro-Phenician
woman said: even the dogs eat Of the
crumbs which fall from the masters
table" Paul says, in Philippians: BE
ware of dogs" and St John, speaking
OF Heaven, says: without are dogs"
On the other hand the lion Is healthy,
storg-a and loud voiced. and at Its roar
the forests echo and the mountains
trembie. It is marvellous for strength
and when Its hide Ia removed the mus
cular ~eompactness is something wonder
full and the knife of the dissector bounds
back from the tendons. BY the clearing
OF OF the forest OF Palestine and the use
OF firearms, Of which the lion Is particu'
larly afraid. they have disappeared from
places where once they ranged. but they
we're very bold In olden times. They
attacked an army OF Xerxes while
marching through Macedonia. They
were so numerous that 1000 lions were
slain In forty years In the ampbitheatei
OF Rome.
As most Of the Bible was written In
regions lion-haunted, this creature ap
pears In almost all parts Of the Bible al
. smile. David understood its habits
OF night providing and day slumbering
as Il seen from his description: '"Tht
Young lions roar after their prey ant
seek their meat from God. The SUI
ariseth, they gather themselves togeth
or, and lay them down in their deas.
And. again he cries out: my soul Il
among lions" Moses knew them anC
said. Judah is couched like Q lion.
Samson knew them, for he took hone,
from the eareass OF q slain lion. Solo
mon knew them and says: 'The King
wrath liz rs the roar OF n lion." ant
again: 1.-THE slothful man says, there
is a lion in the way" Isaiah knew
them, and says. in the millennium, 9Th
lion shall eat straw like an OK" Ezekie
knew them, and says: 1.-The third wa
M the face Of n lion" Paul knew them
and SAYS: 81 was delivered out Of tn
A. IT,. " DaAar Imam khnr
and saws: ''The devil as a roaring lilo
walketh about" St John knew them
and says Of Christ: "Behold the Lion Q
the tribe Of Judsbr'
Now, what docs my text mean when
puts q living dog and dead lion side b
side and says the former is better tina
the latter? 1t means that small faeuI
ties actively used are of more value tina
great faculties unemployed. How ofte
YOU see i'll Some man of limited capat
1ty vastly useful. He takes that whic
God has given him and says: my mel
tai endowment is not large and the woFl
would not rate me high for my INTEL
rence, and nay vocabulary Is limited
and nv education sas defective, bu
here goes what ] have for God and SAWS
zion and the making of the world goo
and happy" He puts in a word heT
and O word there, encourages a fair
hearted man, gives q Scripture passag
in consolation to some bereft womal
Kicks up q child fallen in the street IN
helps him brush of the dust and puts
dye-cept piece In his hand, telling hi
not to cry, so thai the boy Is singing b
fore he gets around the corner; waitir
on everybody that has a letter to car
or q message to deIiVer; comes Into
rail train, or stage coach, or depot
ahop with a smiling face that SETS ever,
body to thinking. III that man can, w
what D small equipmentin life,
happy, why can not j, possessing II
more than he has, be equally happy
One day Of that kind OF doing thlHi
NAV not amount TO much, bat for
year of that-no one but God bimse
can appreciate Its immensity.
There are tens Of thousands of sue
people. Their circle of acquaintance
A small. The man Is known over at Il
STORE. He is clerk or Weigher or dra
man and he Is known among those !
ait near him clear back In the ehurt
under the galleries, and at the fesl
gates where he comes in knocking u
snow from bis shoes and threshing b
arms about his body to revive circulate
ON some January morning. But IL J
should die tomorrow there would not
a hundred people who would kno
about II. He will never have his nan
IN the newspapers but once and tn
will be the announcement Of his deaf
II some one will pay for the insertio
so much q line for the two lines. B