Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1890-04-05
A DEAD LION
REV. DIR. TALMAGE,s SUNDAY
sc .tMON.
Preached at the catchy of Music,
Brooklyn, y. Y.

Brooklyn, n. Y.
TEXT: "a living dog is better than a
dead lion."-Eccles. tx.
The Bible is the strangest, the loveliest, the
mightiest, the weirdest, the best OF BOOKS
Written by Moses the lawyer, Joshua the
soldier, Samuel tho judge, Ezra the builder,
Job the poet, David the shepherd, Daniel Sne
prime minister, Amos the herdsnian, Mat
thew the custom house officer, Luxe the ooc,
tor, Paul the scholar. John tho exile; ana
vet a complete harmony from the nlluale
; verse of the Bible. which is the eighth verse
of the one hundred and seventeenth Psahn,
ASoth WAYS to the upper and lover lids, ana
inc shortest passage when IS Tue I'M
III verse Of the eleventh chapter OF
70 tho longest verse. which Is the nintn
"a Of the eighth chapter of Esther, am0
not al impertection III al Ine 'ao'oyo
or,ls which it is composed OF. IL not only
aches over the past, but over the 1uture'
~, lin ferrybuat, as in secoud Samuel;
u, telerraphic wire, as in Job; and rail-
4 rain. as in Nahum, and introduces us
.fo,lndrvnlau by the name OF Iabul Gam;
shipbuildor by the name OF Noan anu
rchitect by the name OF -Anolao' anu
show many stables Solomon naa 70 sa IN.
his horses, and how much he PAID Tor
lorses. But few things in this Versatile
comprehensive book interest mo so much
apothecms, those short, terse, senten'
@f7l,s. epirramnatic sayings. OF which my
,syt is one: "a living dog is better than
lead lion" ,., a.
Z dog for neanness. 4oumust know tne9 Tue
3 doc mentioned in the text IS not one OF our
An,erican or European or Scottish dogs that,
SIN cur mind, isa synonym for the oeautitui,
he graceful, the affectionate, the sagaclons
M, -ine true The St Bernard dog lsa nero,
s,nd if you doubt it, ask the SHOWS OF the
Alps. out of which he picked the exhausted
traveller The shepherd dog is poem, ana
If you doubtit, asa the highlands OF ScoI-
land. The Arctic dog is the rescue OF eL-
plorers. and if you doubt it, ask Dr. Kane
expedition. The watch dog is a living pro
lection. and if YOU doubt it. ask ten thou
sand homeSteaus over whose safety ne
watched last night. But Solomon, the author
of nv text, lived in Jerusalem, and the dog
be speaks of in the text was dog III JeruSa-
lem. ,.,.
Last December l passed days and nights
within stones throw of where Solomon
wrote this text. and from what saw OF the
CANNES of Jerusalem by day, and heard OF
them by night, I can understand the snShe
appreciation my text puts upon the aoS Oh
Palestine 1t is lean and snarly and disgust
ing. and afflicted with parasites, ana taxes re-
venCe on the human race by flung the nlSnts
with ciamor All up and down the Bible, the
most ri which was written in Palestine or
Syria. or contiguous lands, the dog IS used IN
confenptuous comparison. Hazael SAID; rs
thy servant dog, that he should 90 TINS
1hing:, In self abnegation the Syro-P hoeni'
cian woman said: Even the dogs eat OF the
crumbs which fall from the Masters table.
Paul saws, in Philippians: Beware OF dogs;
and St John. speaking OF heaven. says
5 Without are dogs. ,-,.,
On the otEer hand. the lion is healthy,
8 strong. and loud voiced and at its roar the
forests echo and the mountains trembie IL
ismarvelous Tor strength, and when It's hide
is removed the muscular con,pactnesS Is
something wonderful. and the knife OF the
,lissector bounds back from the tsnions. BY
The clearing cH of the forests of Palestine
and The use OF firearms, OF which the ilo1 IS
particularly afraid, they have disappeared
from places where once they ranged, oaO
rhe3 were very bold i'll olden times. ney
attacked an army of Nerxes while marching
through Macedonia They were 50 numerous
that one thousand lions were slam IL forty
v.ars in the ampniteatre of Rome. The
3arbary lion, the Cape lion. the Senegal non,
The AsSyrian lion. make up most absorbing
and exciting chapter in natural history AS
most of the Bible was written III regions
lion haunted this creature appears N almost
all parts of the Bible as siInle,
David understood its habits OF night
nrowline. and day slumbering, as is seen
from his description; The young lions roar
after their prey and seek their meat from
God. The sun arisath, they gather them
selves together. and lay them down ID their
dens' And again he cries out, My soul IS
among lions" Moses knew them and SAID,
Judah is couched like lion.n Sampson
knew them. for be took honey from the car,
cass of a slain lion. Solomon knew them anu
SAYS ''The Kings wrath is as the roar OF a
lion, and again, THE slothful man says,
There is lion in the way" Isaiah knew
them, and says. in the millennium, The
lion shall eat straw like an OK" Ezekiel
knew them. and says, The third was as the
face of lion" Paul knew them, anu says,
Il was delivered out of the mouth OF tue
lion" Peter knew them. and says, The
devil rs a roaring lion walketh about" st.
John knew them, and says OF Christ, be
hold the Lion of the tribe OF Judah"
Now. what dos my text mean when 1t
nuts a living dog and a dead lion side by side,
AMI saws the former is better than the latter:
II means that small faculties actively used
are OF more value than great faculties IN
employed. How often you see it, Some
man with limited capacity vastly useful;
saws: MY 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 defective,
but here goes what have for God and
salvation, ...-,. ..v making of the world
GOOD and happy" lie puts il Il
word here and a word there, encourages
faint hearted man. gives scripture
passage il consolation to some oeref5
woman. picks up child fallen in the street
and help him brush of the dust and puts a
five 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 letter to carry or message TO
deliver: comes into a rail train, or stage
coach, or depot. OF shop, with q smiling face
that sets everybody to thinning: IF that
man can, with what appears small equip
ment in liie be happy, why cannot |, pos
sessing tar more tam he has, be- equally
;appy:' 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 immensely.
There are tens OF thousands Of such people.
Their circle OF acquaintance is small. The
man is known over at the store. He Is clerk
or weigher or drayman. and he IS known
among those who sit near him clear back in
the church under the galleries, and at the
Terry gates where he comes in knocking the
snow from has Shoes, and threshinS his arms
around his body to revive circulation, on
some January morning. But 1t ne Should
;e tomorrow there would not be hundred
,.ople who would know about it. He VIII
ever have his name in the newspapers but
zee, and that will be the announcement OF
sdeath if some one will pay for tine in
ertion. 50 much line for the two lines.
Tut he Will come up gloriously on the other
ide, and the God who has watched him all
trough will give him higher seat and
netter mansion and gra1der eternity than
,nany man who had on eartn, before bis
name the word honorable, and after his name
LID. and F. r. S. Christ said in Luke, the
,'xth CHI .pter, that in heaven some who had
:thard here would laugh there.
And think a laugh of delight and con-
graduation will run around the heavenly
4 circles when this humble one of whom |
spoke shall so up and take the precedence Of
many Christians who in this world fell them
selves to be OF ninety-niue per cent. more
Importance The whisper will go round the
galleries OF the upper temple: Can it be-
possible that that was the wegher IN our
store:' ''Can it be possible that that was
- IL. RVS. Ton