Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-04-10
THE DEAD LION.
DR.. Talmage breaches From an
Unusual Text.
Tho Bible a Strange But Entirely Consist
ent BOOk-The World Full of Dead
LiOns-ApplIcation of the Text
to Worldly Affairs.

Iyn by Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage was
"A Dead Lion" and his text, Eccles. IL,
4; "a living dog is better than dead
Hon." Following is the sermon:
The Bible is the strangest, the low
lest 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, Mathew
the custom house officer, Luke the doc
tor, Paul the scholar, John the exile;
and yet a complete harmony from the
middle verse of the Bible, which is
psalm cvxii, s, both ways to the upper
and lower lids. and the shortest passage,
which is John xi, IS, to the longest
verse, which is Esther, viii, 9, and yet
not an imperfection in all the 773, 693
words which it is composed of. 1t not
only reaches over the past but over the
future; has in it ferry boat as in Sam
Uel ii, and telegraphic wire as in Job;
and railroad train, as in Nahum; and
introduces to us a 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 had to take
care of his horses, and how he paid for
those horses. But few things in this
versatile and comprehensive book in
terests me so much as its apothegms,
those short, terse, sententiOus, epigram-
matte sayings, of which my text is one:
"A living dog is better than a 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 If you doubt it ask the SHOWS of the
Alps, out of which he picked the ex-
hausted traveller. The shepherd dog is
a poem, and if you doubt flask the high
lands of Scotland. The Arctic dog is
the rescue of explorers, and if you doubt
1t ask DR.. Kane's expedition. The watch
dog is living protection, and if you
doubt it ask ten thousand 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 Je-
rUsalem. Last December l passed days
and nights within a stones throw of
where Solomon wrote his text, and from
what | saw of the CANNES of Jerusalem
by day and heard of them by night l
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 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 contiguous lands
the dog is used in contemptuous COM
parison. Hazael said: rs thy servant a
dog that he should do this thing?' In
the Superintendent
woman said: Even the dogs eat of the
crumbs which fall from the masters
table" Paul says, in Philippians: BE
ware of dogs" and st. John, speaking
of Heaven, says: without are dogs"
On the other hand the lion is healthy,
stong and loud voiced, and at its roar
the forests echo and the mountains
1t is marvellous for strength
and when its hide is removed the mus
cular compactneSs is something wonder
full and the knife of the dissector bounds
back from the tendons. BY the clearing
off of the forest of Palestine and the use
Of firearms, of which the lion is particu-
larly afraid, they have disappeared from
places where once they ranged, but they
were very bold in olden times. They
an army of Nerxes while
through Macedonia. They
were so numerous that 1000 lions were
slain in forty years in the amphitheater
Of Rome.
As most of the Bible was written in
regions lion-haunted, this creature ap-
pears in almost all parts of the Bible as
a smile. David understood 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 togeth
er, 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 a lion"
Samson knew them, for he took honey
from the carcass of slain lion. Solo
mon 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 way" Isaiah knew |
hem, and says, in the millennium, THE |
ion shall eat straw like an OK" Ezekiel |
knew them, and says: The third was
Is the face of a lion" Paul knew them, |
md says: 81 was delivered out of the |
mouth of tho lion" Peter knew them |
ind says: THE devil as a roaring lion |
Yalketh about" St John knew them,
Ind says 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 |
tide and says the former is better than |
The latter? 1t means that small facul- |
lies actively used are of more value than
great faculties unemployed. How often
you see it, Some man of limited capac-
ty vastly useful. He takes that which /
Tod has given him and says: my men
al endowment is not large and the world
would not rate me high for my intelli-
renee, and my vocabulary is limited,
md my education was defective, but
lere goes what have for God and saliva
ion and the making of the world good
ind happy" He puts in word here
Ind word there, encourages faint
hearted man, gives Scripture passage
n consolation to some bereft woman,
hicks up a. child fallen in the street and
lelps him brush off the dust and puts
ive-cent piece in his hand, telling him
lot to cry, so that the boy is singing be-
ore he gets around the corner; waiting