Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-04-04
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
"a LIVING DOG is BETTER THAN A
DEAD LON"
The Man of Small Gifts who Uses What
He Has Is Worth More than He of
Great Talent who Allows His
Ability to Lie Dormant,


room, IN the Aaetlemy Of Music this morning
when the service commenced, the ordinary
Tabernacle coni gegation being increased by
throngs of persian eager to listen to the eo-
unent preacher. TIE service opened with the
singing of the hong Metre doxology by the
immense audience. DR.. Talmages subject
was. "A Dead Lion" and his text, Ecces
ix, 4: "A living dog Is better than dead
lion" Following is a verbatim report of the
sermon:
The Bible ID the strnngest, the loveiest the
rntgktest, tho wedrdest the best Of books.
Written by Nc ses the lawyer, Joshua the sol
der, Samuel the judge, Ezra tina builder,
Job the poet, Ds~id the shepherd, Daniel
the prime minister, Amos the herdsman, Mat
thew the custom house officer, Luke the doc
tor, Paul the scholar, John the exile; and
vet a complete harmony from the middle verse
of the Bible, which is the eighth verse of the
one hundredth and seventeenth Psalm, both
WAYS to the upper and lower lids, and from
the shortest passage, which is the thirty-tifth
verse of the eleventh chapter of John, to the
longest verse, which is the ninth verse of the
eighth chapter of Esther, and yet not an inn
perfection in all the 10, sos words which it is
composed Of It not only reaches over the
past, but over the future; has in it ferry
boat, as in second Samuel; and telegraph
wire, as in j Oh: and a railroad train, as in
Nahum: and introduces us to Il foundryman
BY the 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 he'd to take care of his horses,
and how much he paid for those horses. But
few things in this versatile and comprehen-
sve book interest me so much as its apo
thegms, those short, terse, sententious, cpl
grammatic sayings. OF which nv text lis one
"a living dog is better than dead lion"
THE DOGS AND LIONS OF THE BIBLE.
Here the lion stands for nobility, and the
doc for mennncss. You must know that tho
dog mentioned in the text is not one of our
American or European or Scottish dogs that,
in our mind, is n synonym for the beautiful,
the graceful the affectionate, the sagacious,
and the true. Tho St Bernard dog is hero,
and if YOU doubt IL, ask the SHOWS of the
Alps. out of which he picked the exhausted
traveller The shepherd dog is a poem, and
if you doubt it, ask tho highlands Of Scot
land The Arctic dog is the rescue of ex
porers, and if you doubt it, ask DR.. Kane,
expedition The watch dog is living pro-
lection, and if you doubt il, ask ten thousand
homestaads over whose safety he watched
last night. But Solomon, the author of my
text, lived in Jerusalem, ana the dog he
speaks Of in the text was dog in Jerusalem
Last December l passed days and nights
within stones throw of where Solomon
wrote this text, and from what | saw of the
CANNES of Jerusalem by day, and heard of
them by night, | can understand the slight
appreciation my text puts upon the dog Of
Palestine 1t is lean and snarly and disgust
ing, and afflicted with parasites, and takes
>revenGe on the human race by filling the
nights with clamor. All up and down the
Bible, the most of which was written in PaleS-
tine or Syria, or contiguous lands, the dog is
used in contemptuouS comparison Hazael
said: SIS thy servant "a dog that ne should do
this thingF In self abnegation the SyrO-
Phpncan woman said; even the dogs eat
of the crumbs which fall from the masters
table" Paul says, in Philippians: beware
Of dogs and st. John, speaking of heaven
says: without are dogs"
On the other hand the lion is healthy
strong and loud voiced. and at its roar the
forests echo and the mountains tremble. it
is marvellous for strength, and when its hide
is removed the muscular compactness is
something wonderful, and the knife OF
the dssector bounds back from the ten
hons. By the clearing off OF the forests
of Palestine and the use of firearms, of which
the lion is particularly afraid, they have dis
appeared from places where once they ranged,
but they were very bold in olden times. They
attacked an army of Xerxes while marching
through Macedonia. They We're so numer-
Gus that one Thousand lions were slain in forty
years in the amphitheatre of Rome. The Bar
barry lion, the Cape lion, the Senegal lion. the
Assyriap lion. make up a most absorbing and
exciting chapter in natural history. AS most
OF the Bible was written In regions lion
haunted, this creature appears in almost all
parts of the Bible as a smile David under
stood its habits Of night prowling and day
slumbering, as is seen from his description.
"The young lions roar after their prey and
seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth,
they gather themselves together. and lay
them down IN their dens." And again he
cries out, my soul is among lions" Moses
knew them and said, Judah is couched like
lion" Samson knew them, for he took
honey from ths carcass Of slain lion. Solo
mon knew them and says, 1.-THE kings wrath
is as the roar Of a lion;n and again, 1.-THE
blothful man says, There il Ion In the way. "
Isaiah knew thesn. and says, in the millen-
mum, "The lion shall cat straw like an OK. "
Ezekiel knew them, and says 1.-THE third
was as the face Of lion" Paul knew them
and says, II was delivered out Of the mouth
or The non. refer Knew Them and says
1.-THE devil as a roaring lion walketh about >
St. John knew them, and says OF Christ
Behold the lion Of the tribe OF Judahr
The MEANING oy THE TEXT
Now, what DOS my text mean when it put,
living dog and dsad lion side by side, and
says the former u bsttsr than the latteri l,
means that small faculties actively used are
of more value than great faculties unem
ployed. How often you seeit! Some mar
with limited capacity vastly useful He take
that which God has given him and says. any
mental endowment is not large and tho woric
would not rate me high for my intelligence
and my vocabulary is limited, and my educa
ton was defective bat hero goes what have
for God and salvation, and the making of tbs
world good and happy" He puts in worc
here and a word there, encourages a faint
hearted man, gives Scripture passage in
consolation "a, some bereft woman picks up
child fallen ip the street. and helps him brush
of the dust and puts ffve-cent piece in hi
hand telling bin not to cry, SO that the boy
Is singing before be gets round the corner
waiting on everybody that has n letter Il
carry OF q massage to deliver; comes into {