The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-04-02
"a DEAD LION"
The Subject Of a Sermon by Rev.
4. Dewitt Talmage, D. D.
The Necessity OF GraspIng Present Oppor'
tunitles for Salvatlon-small Faculties
Actively Used of More Value Than
Great Faculties Unemployed
The Dead Lions Of the
Present Day.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached re-
cently from the text Eccles. tx, 4: "a
living dog is better than dead lion."
Following is report Of the sermon:
The Bible is the strangest. the lowell
est, 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 herdsman, Matthew the Gus
tom-house officer, Luke the doctor, Paul
the scholar, John the exile; and yet
complete harmony from the middle
verse OF the 117th psalm, both ways to
the upper and lower lids, and from the
shortest passage, which is the thirty
fifth 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 773,693 words Of which 1t Is COM
posed. 1t not only reaches over the
past, but over the future; has in 1t
ferryboat, as in second Samuel, and q
telegraphic wire, as in Job, and rail-
road train, as in Nahum, and introduces
US to afoundryman 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 had TO take care of his horses,
and how much he paid for those horses.
But few things in this versatile and
comprehensive bookinterest me so much
as its apothegms those short, terse, SEN
tentious 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. 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 a
synonym for the beautiful, the graceful,
the affectionate, the sagacious and the
true. The st. Bernard dog is 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
poem, and II you doubt 1t ask the
Highlands Of Scotland. The Arctic dog
10 the rescue Of explorers and II you
doubt it. ask DR.. Kane's expedition.
The Watchdog is living protection, and
II you doubt II, ask ten thousand home
steads over pwhose safety he watched
last night. But Solomon, the author OF
my text, lived in Jerusalem. Last De-
cember passed days and nights within
= stone's-throw OF where Solomon wrote
I'D thaN 81 . kha
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 disgusting, and afflicted with
parasites, and takes revenge on the hui
man race by filling the night 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 oontemptuous comparison.
Hazael said, "Is thy servant dog that
be should do this tning?" In self-abne.
cation the Syro-Phenician woman said
even the dogs eat Of the crumbs which
IA u dasl"-s 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 It's roai
the forests echo and the mountains
tremble. II is marvellous for strength
and whom It's hide is removed the mus
cular compactness is something wonder
ful, and the knife Of the dissector bounds
back from the tendons by the clearing
on OF the forests Of Palestine a,.d the
use Of firearms, Of which the lion Il
particularly afraid, they have disap
pcared from places where once theJ
ranged, but they were very bold ir
olden times. They attacked an army
Of Xerxes while marching through
Macedonia. They were so numerous
that one thousand lions were slain IL
forty years In the amphitheater o
Rome. The BArbary lion, the Cap'
lion, the Senegal lion, the AssyriaI
hon. make up most absorbing and ex
oiting chapter in natural history. Al
most Of the Bible was written In region
lion-haunted, this creature appears II
almost all parts Of the Bible as simile
David understood its labits Of night
prowling and day-slumberins, as 1
seen from his description: "The younI
lions roar after their prey and seek thei
meat from God. The sun ariseth, the
father themselves together, and la
them down in their dens." And agail
he cries out, my soul IL among lions.
Moses knew them and said, Judah 4
couched like . lion.r Samson kne,
thom, for he took honey from the carcas
Of slain lion. Solomon knew ther
and says, ''the kings wrath Is as tn
roar Of hon,p and again, ''the slothfu
man says thero IL . lion In the way.
Isaiah knew them, and says, in the mi
lennium, ''the lion shall eat straw lik
an OK" Ezekiel know them, and say
s'the third was as the face of lion.
Paul know them, and says, ~ was d,
livered out Of the mouth Of the lion.
Peter knew thom and says, "the dew
a. 4 roaring lion walketh about" "
John knew them, and says OF Chris
! 'behold the lion Of the tribe Of Judah
Now, what does my text mean when
puts living dog and dead lion ssde b
side, and says the former is better tina
the latter2 II means that small faou
ties actively used are OF more valu
than great faculties unemployed. Ho
often you soc Ill Some man with limite
capacity vastly useful. He takes ths
which God has given him and say
my mental endowment is not large al
the world would not rate me high Il