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

AhA"h VII lottllNtty "po II btl(l
and his text, Ecclesiastes 9:i, "a liv-
lnS dog IS better than dead lion. "
He said:
The Bible is the strangcsl, the love
liest, the mighticst, the wcirdcst, 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-hous
officer, Luke the doctor, Paul the
scholar, John the exile; and yet u
complete harmony from the middle
verse of the Bible, which is the eighth
verse of the one hundred and seven
tcenth psalm, both ways to the upper
and lower lids, and from the shortest
passage, which is thirty-tifth verse of
the eleventh chapter of John, to the
longest verse, which is the ninth
verse of the eighth charter of Es-
ther, and yet not an imperfcction in
all the 773, ,G93 words which it is com
posed of. 1t not only reaches over
the past, but over the future: has in
1T ferry-boat, as III second Samuel:
and telegraph wire, Us in job: and
"lllroad train, as in Nahum; and
J i Cduces us to foundrymnn bv
I 8 npme of Tubal Cain, and shin.
r:.ilder by the name of Noah, and an
r'hitect by the name of Aholiab.
ant tells us how many stables Solo
non had to ta Ike care of his horses,
':nd how much he paid for those
i.orscs. But few things in this vcr-
S,tllc and comprehensive book inter
n.:J me SO much as its npothccms,
those short, terse, sentcntious, cpl
rgammatlc sayings, of which my text
is one--"A living dog is better than a
dead lion"
Hcl ethe lion stands for nobility,
and Il dog for mcanncSs. 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 atl'cctionatr.
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 Il
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.. Kanc's eXpcdi-
ton. The watchdog is II living pro
lection, and if you doubt it, ask ten
thousand hOmestcnlS over whose
safety he watched last night. But
Solomon, the author of my text, lived
in Jerusalem, and the dog he speaks
of III the text was Il dog in Jerusalem.
Last December [ passed nights and
days within stones throw of where
Solomon wrote this text, and from
what saw of the CANNES Of Jerus;,-
lem by day, and heard Of them by
night I can understand the slight APP
probation my text puts upon the dog
of Palestine. 1t is lean and Snarly
and disgusting, and afflicted with
parasites, and takes revenge upon the
human race by filing the nights with
clamor. A II up and down the Bible.
the most of which was written in
Palestine or Syria, on contiguous
lands, the dog is used i'll contcmptu.
Gus comparison. Hazacl said, Is
thy servant dog, that he should do
this thing?" In self-abncgation the
SyrO-Phnnician woman SAID, ''Evcn
the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from the Masters table. Paul
Says iii 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-voiccd, and at
its roar the forests echo and the
mountains tremblc. 1t is marvellous
Tor strength, md when its hide is re-
moved, the muscular compactncss IS
something wonderful, and the knife
of the dissector bounds back from the
tcndons. BY the clearing of Of the
forests of Palestine and the use Of
firearms, of which the lion is particu
larly afraid, they have disappeared
from places where they once ranged.
but they were very bold in oldcn
times. They attacked m army OF
Xerxes while marching through Mac
cdonia. They were SO numerous
that one thousand lions were slain in
forty years in the amphithcatcr III
Rome. AS most Of the Bible was
written in regions lion-hauntcd, this
creature appears in almost all parts
OF the Bible as q smile. David I'M
dngstood it's habits of night -prowling
Nnu day-slumbering, as is seen from
his description: "The young lions
car after their prey and seek their
meat from God. The sun ariscth,
they gather themselves together, and
KY them down in their dcns." And
again he cries out, ''My soul is among
lons.' Moses knew them and said:
"Iddah is crouched like alion' Sam
son knew thom for he took honey
from the carcass Of q slain lion. Sol
onion knew them and says, "Thc
kings wrath is like the roar of a
hon,' and again "The slothful man
says, there is lion III the way y
Isaiah knew them, and says in the
millennium, "The lion shall cat straw
like an 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 u roaring lion
walketh about st. John knew
them, and says of Christ, "Behold
the lion of the tribe of Judah!''
Now, what does my text mean