The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-04-16
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: IA Dead Lion"

0kQG non. ."-EccleS. lA., +.
The Bible is the strangest, the loveliest, the
miehtiest the werdest, the BEST OF DOCKS.
Written by Moses the lawyer, Joshua the
soldier, Samuel the judge, Ezra the oulider,
Job the poet, David the shepherd, DAME! the
thew the custom house officer, Luke the doc
tor. Paul the scholar, John the exile; ana
vet a complete harmony from the middle
verse of the Bible, which is the eighth verse
of the one hundred and seventeenth fsalm;
both ways to the upper and lower LIDS, ana
from the shortest passage, which is the tnlr.
ty-fifth verse of the eleventh chapter OF
John, to the longest verse, which is the mntn
verse of the eighth chapter OF Esther, ana aa
vet not an imperfection IN all tne t.a,oSo
words which it is composed OF. 1t not only
reaches over the past, but over the future;
has in it a ferryboat, as in second Samuel;
and teleeraphic wire, as in Job; and rail-
road train, as in Nahum; and introduces us
to a foundryman by the name OF Iabui Gam,
and shipbuilder by the name OF Noah, ana
an architect by the name Of Ahollab, and
tells us how many stables Solomon had TO take
care of his horses, and how much he paid for
those horses. But few things in this versatile
and comprehensive book interest me so mucn
as its apothegms, those short, terse, senten.
tious, epigrammatic sayings, OF which my
text is one: "a living dog is better than
dead lion."
Here the lion stands for nobility, and the
dog for meanness. Youmust know that the
dog mentioned in the text Is not one OF out
American or European or Scottlsh dogs tnaG,
in our mind, is synonym for the beautif'li,
the graceful, tho affectionate, the sagaclous
and the true. The ST. Bernard dog Is nero,
and if YOU doubt it, ask the SHOWS OF the
Alps, out of which he picked the exhausted
traveller. The shepherd dog is a poem, and
if you doubtit, ask the Highlands Oh SCOT
land. The Arctic dog is the rescue OF e1-
plorers, and if you doubt it, ask Dr. kanes
expedition. The watch dog IS hVlng pro-
lection, and if you doubt it, ask ten tnou-
watched last nigh3. But Solomon, the author
of INV text, lived in Jerusalem, and the dog
he speaks Of in the text was dog In Jerusa-
lem. ,..
Last December 1 passed days and nights
within a stones throw OF where solomon
wrote this text, and from what saw OF the
CANNES of Jerusalem by day, and heard or
them by night, I can understand the slghG
appreciation my text puts upon the dog OF
Palestine. It is lean and snarly and disgust
ing, and afflicted with parasites, and taxes re-
venge on the human race by filling the mgn1s
with clamor. All up and down the bloie, tne
most Of which was written In Palestine OF
Syria or contiguous lands, the dog Is aseu In Ia
thy servant q dog, that he should DO TINS
thfng?' In self abnegation the Syro- -fhenl-
clan woman said: seven 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 tremole., IL
is marvellous for strength, and when us nloe
is removed the muscular compactness Is
something wonderful, and the knife OF the
dissector. bounds back from the tendons. by
the clearing off Of the forests or falesvlne
and the use of firearms, Of which the lion IS
particularly afraid, they have disappeared
from places where once they ranged, but
thew were very bold in olden times. They
attacked an army of Xerxes while marching
through Macedonia. They were so numerous
that one thousand lions were slain IN forty
wears in the amphiteatre of Rome. Inc
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 ID regions
lion haunted, this creature appears In almost
all parts of the Bible as smile.
David understood its habits or nlgnt
prowling and day slumbering, as IS seen
from his description: "The young hons rosr
after their prey and seek their meat from
God. The sun ariseth, they gather them
selves together, and lay them down in their
dens.n And again he cries out, My soul IS
among lions" Moses knew them and said,
.Judah is couched like lion" Sampson
knew them, for he took honey from the car,
cass of a slain lion, Solomon knew them ana
saws sThe Kings wrath is as the roar OF a
Iionn and again, ''The slothful man says,
There is a lion in the way" Isaiah knew
them. and says, in the millennium, "fhe
lion shall eat straw like an OK" Ezekiel
knew them, and says, THE third was as the
face of a lion" Paul knew them, and says
sI was delivered out of the mouth OF u! Tue
lion.n Peter knew them, and says, "ine
devil as roaring lion walSeth about. o6'
John knew them, and says OF GnriS1' oe
hold the Lion of the tribe of Judah"
Now. what doas my text mean when IL
puts living dog and a dead lion side by SIDE,
and saws the former is better than the latter;
IL means that small faculties actively used
are of more value than great faculties un-
employed. How often you see 1t! Some
man with limited capacity vastly useful:
he takes that which God has given him and
saws: 'sMy mental endowment is not large
and the world would not rate me high for
NV intelligence and my vocabulary. Is
limited, and my education was detective,
but here goes what I have for God and
salvation, and the making of the world
good and happy" He puts IN
word here and word there, encourages
a faint hearted man, gives Scripture
passage in consolation to some pere11
woman picks up child fallen in the street
and him brush off the dust and puts
Ave cent piece in his hand, telling him not to
cry. so that the boy is singing before ne gets
round the corner; waiting on everybody
that has a letter to carry or message 10
deliver: comes into rail train, or stage
coach. or depot, or shop, with smiling face
that sets everybody to thinking: 'lf that
man can, with what appears small equip
ment in life, bs happy, why cannot I, pos
sessing far more than be has, be equally
happy?" One day Of that kind of doing
things may not amount to much, but forty
wears OF that--no one but God himself can
appreciate its immensity.
There are tens of thousands OF such people.
Their circle of acquaintance IS small. Inc
man is known over at the store. DE IS clerk
or weigher or drayman, and ne IS known
the church under the galleries, and at the
ferry gates where he comes in knocking the
snow from his shoes. and threshing his arms
around his body to revive circulation, on
some January morning, But il he should
die tomorrow there would not be hund red
people who would know about it. He will
never have his name in the newspapers but
once and that will be the announcement OF
his death, if some one will pay for the in
sertion, so much line for the two lines.
But he will come up gloriously on the other
side, and the God who has watched him all
through will give him higher seat and
better mansion and grander eternity than
many a man who had on earth, before his
name the word honora ole and after his name
LID. and F. r. s. Christ said in Luxe, the
sixth chapter, that in heaven some who had
it hard here would laugh there.
And think a laugh Of delight and con-