The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1890-04-17
A DEAD LION.'
ORDS SPOKEN IN THE TA8ERNA.
GLE PULPIT.

Dr., DO Witt Talmage Speaks From EcoIesi-
astes Upon a "Dead Lion" and Creates II
Sensation.
The subject of DR.. Talmage's ser
mon on Sunday was "a Dead Lion"
and his text, Ecclesiastes 9:4, "a liv-
ing dog is better than dead lion"
He said:
The Bible is the strangest, the love-
liest, the mightiest, the weirdest, the
best of books. Written by Moses
the lawyer, Joshua the soldier, Sam
uel the Judge, Ezra the builder, Job
the poet, David the shepherd, Daniel
tho prime minister, Amos the herds
man, Matthew the custom-house
officer, Luke the doctor, Paul the
scholar, John the exile; and yet a
complete harmony from the middle
verse of the Bible, which is the eighth
verse of the one hundred and seven
teenth psalm, both ways to the upper
and lower lids, and from the shortest
passage, which is thirty-ffth verse of
the eleventh chapter of John, to the
longest verse, which is the ninth
verse Of the eighth charter of Els
ther, and yet not an imperfection in
all the 1858 words which it is COIN
posed Of 1t not only reaches over
the past, but over the future; has in
it ferry-boat, as in second Samuel:
and telegraph wire, as in Job; and
'niroad train, as in Nahum; and
] l5'oduces us to foundryman by
/ q name of Tubal Cain, and ship
Duilder by the name of Noah, and an
rchitect by the name of Aholiab,
AMI tells us how many stables Solo
mon had to take care of his horses,
and how much he paid for those
i.orses. But few things in this ver
Sttilc and comprehensive book inter
e.; me so much as its apothcgms,
those short, terse, sententiOus, eDi-
rgammatlc sayings, of which my text
is one,-"A living dog is better than
dead lion"
Herethe lion stands for nobility,
and dog for meanness. You must
know that the dog mentioned in the
text is not one of our American or
European or Scottish dogs that, in
our mind, is q synonym for the beau
tiful, the graceful, the af;ectionatc,
the sagacious, and the true The st.
Bernard dog is a hero, and if you
doubt it, ask the SHOWS of the Alps,
out of which Ae picked the exhausted
traveller. The shepherd dog is q
poem, and if you doubt it, ask the
Highlands of Scotland. The Arctic
dogis the rescuer Of explorers, and if
you doubt it, ask DR.. Kane's eXpedi-
tion. The watchdog is n living pro-
lection, and if you doubt it, ask ten
thousand homestendS 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 Jerusalem.
Last December L passed nights and
days within stones throw of where
Solomon wrote this text, and from
what I saw of the CANNES of Jerusa-
lem by day, and heard Of them by
night [ con understand the slight ap-
probation my text puts upon the dog
of Palestine. 1t is lean and snarly
and disgusting, and afflicted with
parasites, and takes revenge upon thc
human race by filing the nights with
clamor. A II up and down the Bible,
the most of which was written in
Palestine OF Syria, on contiguous
lands, the dog is used in contemptu-
Gus comparison. Hazael said, SIS
thy servant dog, that he should do
this thing?" In self-abnegation the
Syro- o-Ph9nician woman said, Gwen
the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from the Masters table" Paul
says in Philippians, "Beware Of dogs"
and st. John in 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. 1t is marvelo:.s
for strength, and when it's hide is re-
moved, the muscular cOmpactncsS is
something wonderful, and the knife
of the dissector bounds back from the
tendons. BY the clearing off of the
forests of Palestine and the use of
fire e-arms, of which the lion is particu-
lally afraid, they have disappeared
but they were very bold III olden
times. They attacked an army Of
Xerxes while marching through Mac
cdonia. They were so numerous
that one thousand lions were slain in
forty years in the amphithcatcr in
Rome. AS most Of the Bible was
written in regions lion-haunted, this
creature appears in almost all parts
Of the Bible as O simile. David un-
prvstood it's habits Of night ht-prowling
Nnu day-slumbering, as is seen from
his description: "The young lions
1oar after their prey and seek their
meat from God. The sun ariscth,
they gather themselves together, and
KY them down in their dens." And
again he cries out, E'My souls among
lions Moses knew them and said:
~ ddah is crouched like alion" Sam
son knew them for he took honey
from the carcass of q slain lion. Sol
omon knew them and says, ''The
kings wrath is like the roar of a
lion" and again "The slothful man
says, there is q lion III the way"
Isaiah knew them, and says in the
millennium, "The lion shall cat straw
like IN OK" Ezekiel knew them and
says, "The third was the face of a
lion" Paul knew them, and says:
81 was delivered out of the mouth
of the lion" Peter knew them, and
says: "The devil as q roaring lion
walketh about" St. John knew
them, and says of Christ, "Behold