Connecticut western news., 1890-04-02
WORK DURING YOUR LIFE
DR. TALMAGE SOUNDS A NOTE OF WARNING TO THE SLOTHFUL.

A Sermon from the Text "A Living Dog Is
 Better Than 8 Dead Lion"-Now Is the
 Time for Good Works.
 BROOKLYN, March SO.-There was the usual difficulty in getting seats, or even standing room, in the Academy of Music this morning when the ser vice commenced, the ordinary Taber- nacle congregation being increased by throngs of persons eager to listen to the eloquent preacher. The service opened with the singing of the Long Metre Doxology by the immense au- dience. Dr. Talmage's subject was, "A Dead Lion," and his text, Eccles. K, 4: IA living dog is better than a dead lion." Following is verbatim report of the sermon: 5
 The Bible is the strangest, the love- Hest, 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 custom house officer, Luke the doctor, Paul the scholar, John the exile; and yet complete udruOuv 1TOul Illo ulluOlo VcIo0 Ol 1AC Bible, which is the eighth verse of the one hundred and seventeenth. Psalm, both ways to the upper and lower lids, and from the shortest passage, which is the thirty-fift 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 inn perfection in all the 773, 693 words which it is composed of. It not only reaches over the past, but over the fu- ture; has in it a ferry boat, as in sec ond Samuel; and telegraphic wire, as in Job; and railroad train, as in Nahum; and introduces us to foun- dryman by the name of Tubal Cain, and ship builder 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 book in terest me so much as itss apothegms, those short, terse, sententious, epi- grammatic sayings, of which my text is one-"A living dog is better than a dead ion."
 THE LION AND THE DOG.
 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 sa- dog is hero, and if you doubt it, ask the snows of the Alps, out of which he picked the exhausted traveller. The doubt it, ask the Highlands of Scot land. The Arctic dog is the rescue ot explorers, and if you doubt it ask Dr. Kane's expedition. The watch dog if g 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 Jeru. salem.
 Last December I passed days and nights within a stone's throw of where Solomon wrote this text, and from what1 saw of the canines of Jerusa lem by day, and heard of them by night, I can understand the slight appreciation my text puts upon the dog of Palestine. It 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 ir Palestine or Syria, or contiguous lands, the dog is used in contemptu ous comparison. Hazael said: "Is thy servant dog, that he should dc this thing2" In self abnegation the Syro-Phonician woman said: Even 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 ii healthy, strong, and loud voiced, and 1 at its roar the forests echo and the mountains tremble It is marvellous for strength, and when its hide is re moved the muscular compactness i something wonderful, and the knife o 1 the dissector bounds back from tn, I tendons. By the clearing off of th' | forests of Palestine and the use of fire arms, of which the lion is particularly afraid, they have disappeared iron places where once they ranged, bu they were very bold in olden times They attacked an army of Xerxe l while marching through Macedonia 1 They were so numerous that on, thousand lions were slain in fort, 1 years in the amphitheatre of Rome Senegal lion, the Assyrian lion, mak' l chapter in natural history. As mos of the Bible was written in region lion haunted, this creature appears i, | almost all parts of the Bible as simile.
 David understood its habits of nigh prowling and day slumbering, as l seen from his description: "The young lions roar after their prey and seel their meat from God The sun ariseth they gather themselves together, an, lay them down in their dens" Ant again he cries out, My soul is amonl lions" Moses knew them and said Judah is couched like ion." Sam son knew them, for he took hone, from the carcass of slain lion. Solo mon knew them and says, "The king
 wrath is as the roar of a ion," an' again, "The slothful man says, There a lion in the way" Isaiah knew them and says, in the millennium, 'Th
 lion shall eat straw like an OK" Eze kiel knew them, and says, 1.-The thir'
 was as the face of ion." Paul knev them, and says, 1T was delivered ou of the mouth of the lion." Peter knev them, and says, 1.-The devil as roar ing lion walketh about" St. Johl
 knew them, and says of Christ, Be
 hold the Lion of the tribe of Judah | Now, what does my text mean whel
 it puts living dog and dead io1 side by side. and suys the former