Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-31
THE USES OF WEALTH
Plainly Pointed Out by DR.. Talmage
in a Sermon From the Text
OF LIVING DOGS AND DEAD LIONS.
Mr.. Carnegie's Example COntrasted With
That of Other Wealthy Men
WHO SPEND NO MONEY In DOING GOOD
ESPECIAL TRLEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcHl

standing-room, in the Academy of Music
this morning when the service commenced,
the ordinary Tabernacle congregation being
increased by throngs of persons eager
to listen to the eloquent preacher,
The service opened with the singing of the
long meter Doxology by the immense audi
ence. DR.. Talmage's subject was, "a Dead
Lion" and his text Eccles. 9:4, "a living
dog is better than a dead lion." Following
is verbatim report of the sermon:
The Bible is the strangest, the loveliest the
mightiest, the weirdest the best of books.
Written by Moses the lawyer, Joshua the SOL
der, Samuel the Judge Ezra the builder. Job
the poet. David the shepherd Daniel the prime
minister, Amos the herdsman. Matthew the
custom house officer. Luke the doctor, Paul
the scholar, John the exile; and yet complete
harmony from the middle verse of the Bible.
which is the eighth verse of the one hundred
and seventeenth Psalm, both ways to the upper
and lower lids. and from the shortest passage,
which is the thirty-ffth 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 imperfection in all the 77S 69S words which
It is composed of II not only reaches over the
past, but over the future; has in it a ferryhoat
as in IL Samuel: and a telegrap phic wire, as in
Job: and a railroad train, as in Nahum: and in
rodaceS to us foundryman by the name OF
Noah. and an architect by the name of Ahoiab,
and tells rs how many stables Solomon had to
take care of his horses. and how much he paid
for those hCTses. But few things in this versa
tile and comprehensive book interest me so
much as its apotheCms. those short, terse, SEN
tentioCs, epigrammatic sayings, Of which my
text is one-"A living dog Is better than dead
lion"
THE KING OF BEASTS.
Here the lion stands for nobility and the dog
for meanness. You must know that the dog
mentioned in the text is not one of our Ameri-
can or European or Scottish dogs that in our
mind, is a synonym for the beautiful the grace
full, the afTectionate, 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 he picked the exhausted traveller. The
shepherd dog is poem, and if you doubt it.
ask the Highlands of Scotland. The Arctic
dog is the rescue of explorers, and if you doubt
it ask DR.. kane's expedition. The watch dog
is a living protection, and if you doubt it, ask
10000 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 dog
in Jerusalem. Last December passed days
and nights within a stones throw of where
Solomon wrote thi- text and from what saw
OF the cannes of Jerusalem by day. and heard
OF them by nigh. 1 can understand the slight
appreciation my text puts upon the dog of Pal
estine. 1t is lean and sEary and disgusting
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 Palestine or Syria
or co tiguous lands, the dog Is used in con-
temptuous comparison. HaZael said: 'Is thv
servan a dog that he should DO this thingP"
In self-tbnegaJion the Syro-P h9nician woman
said: Even the dogs eat oflthe crumbs which
fall from the Masters table" Paul saws 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 laud-voced. and atits roar the forests echo
and the mountains tremble. 1t is marvellous
Tor strength. and when its hide is removed the
muscular cGmpactness is something wonderful
and the knife Of ohe dissector bounds back from
the tendons. BY the clearing off of the forests
OF Palestine and the use of firearms of which
the ion is particularly afraid, they have disap-
peared from places where once they ranged,
but they were very bold in olden times. Thev
attacked an army Of XerXes while marching
through Macedonia. They were so numerous
that lOOO lions were slain in 40 years in the
amphlth -Gter at Rome. The Barbary lion the
Cape lion, the Senegal lion, the AsSyrian lion
make up 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 tn
Bible as q simile. David understood its has
of night-prowling and day-slumberlng as is
seen from his description: "Ihe young lions
God. The sun riseth, 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 the carcass of a slain lion.
Solomon knew them. and says: THE kings
wrath is as the roar of a lion:" and again. ''The
slothful man says, There is a lion in the wayn
Isaiah knew them and says in the millennium.
hall LII,
knew them and says: The third was as the
face of lion" Paul knew them and saws: Il
was delivered out of the mouth of the lion"
Peter knew them and says. The devil as a |
roaring lion walketh about" St. John knew
them. and saws of Christ: Behold the Lion of
the tribe of Judah!'
Now, what does my text mean when it puts a |
living dog and dead lion side by side and saws |
the former is better than the latte /? 1t means |
that small faculties actively used are of more
value than great faculties UNEMPLOYED How
often YOU see il! Some man with limited ca
pacitv vastly useful. He takes that which God |
has given him and says: MY mental endov-
meut is not large and the world would not rate |
me high for my intelligence. and my vocabulary
is limited and my education was defective but |
here goes what have for God and salvation |
and the making OF the world good and happv' |
He puts in a word here and a word there en- |
courages faint-hearted man, gives a |
Scripture passage in consolation to some |
bereft woman. picks up a child fallen |
in the street and helps him brush off the |
dust and puts 5-cent piece in his hand telling |
him not to CRY, that the boy is singing before
he gets rOund the corner; waiting on everybody |
that has letter TO carry or a message to de- |
liver: comes into rail train. or a stage coach |
depot, or shop, with a smiling face that sets |
everybody to thinking. ''If that man can with
what appears small equipment in life be happy
why cannot / possessing far more than he has |
be equally happy?' One day of that kind of |
doing things may not amount to much, but 40 |
years of that-nO one but God Himself can An |
preciate its immensIty.
There are tens of thousands of such people
Their circle Of acQuaini ance is small The man |
is known over at the store. He is clerk or |
those who sit near him clear back In the church |
under the galleries, and at the ferry gates where
he comes in knocking the snow from mis- shoes 1
and threshing his arms around his body to re- |
vive circulation. on some January morning |
But if he should die tomorrow there would not 1
be 8 hundred people who would know about It.
NoBLEMEN UNKNOWN TO FAME.
He will never have his name IN the news
papers but once and that will be the announce
ment of his death. if someone will pay for the
insertion, SC much line for the two lines. But
he will come up glorlously on the other side
and the God who has watched over him all
through will give him a higher seat and a |
better mansion and grander eternity than
many a man who had on earth, before his
name the word Honorable and after his name |
LII D. aud F. r. S. Christ said in Luke the
sixth chapter. that in heaven some who had it
hard here would laugh there. And think a
laugh of delight and congratulation will run
around the heavenly circles when this humble
one of whom 1 spoke shall go up and take the
precedence of many Christians who in this
,vorld felt IN l1e of NOR capt mora |