The Yale expositor., 1895-03-01

-SssNALg,~ AZ mage took for his
49, sssaassSt'S$ ssSSk@ subject to-day, "A
=NSZSlSSc,-> Snowy Day." the
SzHEY " text selected being
NTn QI Il9l /. Chronicles II %:
V"NlfTdN He went down and
ttr-I.H MA rs slew q lion in pit
w. in a snowy day"
,pa--f> Have you ever
W. heard OF him? HIS
<S~ name was Benaiah.
He was a man of stout muscle and or
great avoirdupois. His father was
hero. and he inherited prowess. He was
athletic and there was iron In his blood,
and the strongest bone in his body was
back bone. He is known for other Won
ders besides that Of the text An Egyp-
tian five cubits in stature, or about
seven feet nine inches high, was NOV
Ing around in braggadocio and flourish
ing great spear, careless as to whom
he killed, and Benaiah of my text, with
nothing but a walking stick came upon
him. snatched the spear from the Egyp-
tian,and with one thrust of its sharp
edge. put an end to the blatant bully,
which makes us think of the story in
our Greek lesson too hard for us IL the
smarter boy on the same bench had not
helped us out with IL, in which Hora-
tlus the Macedonian, and Dioxippus the
Armenian, fought in the presence OF Al
eNander; the Macedonian armed with
shield and sword and javelin. and the
Armenian with nothing but club. The
Macedonian hurled the javelin, but the
Athenian successfully dogded 1t, and the
Macedonian lifted the spear. but the
Athenian with the club broke it, and
the Macedonian drew the sword. but
the Athenian tripped him up before he
could strike with It, and then the Athe-
man with his club would have beaten
the life out OF the Macedonian, fallen
among his useless weapons, IL Alexan-
der had not commanded, stop! Stop
But Benaiah Of the text is about TO do
something that will eclipse even that.
There is trouble in all the neighbor-
hood. Lambs are carried off in the
night, and children venturing only
little way from their fathers house
are found mangled and dead. The fact
is,the land was infested with lions, ana
rev people dared meet one of these griz-
ely beasts, much less corner or attack
ely beasts, much less corner or attack
II, one morning a footstep of lion was
tracked In the snow. 1t had been out
on Its devouring errand through the
darkness, but AT .Iast 1t is found by the
impression Of four paws on the white
surface OF the ground, which way the
wild beast came, and which way IL had
gone. Perilous undertaking; but Bena-
iah, the hero of the text. armed him
self with such weapons as those early
days afforded, gunpowder having been
invented in a far subsequent century
by the German monk, Betholdus
Schwartz. Therefore, without gun or
any kind of firearms, Benaiah OF the
text no doubt depended on the sharp
steel edge for his own defense and the
slaughter OF the lion as he followed the
track through the snow. 1t may have
been a javelin II may have been only n
knife; but what Benaiah lacks in weap-
on he will make up in strength of arm
and skill of stroke. But where is the
lion? We must not get off his track in
the snow. The land has many cisterns.
or pits, for catching rain, the rainfall
being very scarce 1T certain seasons,
and hence these cisterns, or reservoirs
are dgged here, and there, and yonder.
Lions have an instinct which seems TO
tell them when they are pursued, and
this dread monster Of which ! speak,
retreats into one of these cisterns
which happened to be free of water, and
is there painting from the long run, and
licking its jaws after a repast of human
flesh, and after quaffing the red vintage
Of human blood.
Benaiah is all alert, and comes eau
| tiously on toward the hiding place OF
this terror of the fields. Coming to the
verge Of the pit. he looks down at the
i II.
What q moment II was when their eyes
clashed! But while a modern Du Chail-
In. Gordon Cumming or Sir Samuel Ba-
ker. or David Livingston would have
lust brought the gun to the shoulder,
and held the eye against the barrel,
and blazed away into the depths, and
finished the beast, Benaiah, with only
the old time weapon, can do nothing
until he gets on level with the beast,
and so he jumps into the pit, and the
lion with shining teeth of rage, and
claws lifted to tear to shreds the last
yestige of human life. springs for the
man, while Benaiah springs for the
beast. But the quick stroke of the steel
edge flashed again, and again, and
again, until the snow was no longer
white. and the right foot of triumphant
Renaiah is half covered with the tawny
name of the slain horror of Palestine
Now you see how emphatic. and trag-
IL and tremendous are the words of my
text: HE went down and slew lion in
a nit in a snowy day." Why put that
in the Bible? Why put 1t twice in the
R,ble. once in the book of Samuel, and
here in the book of Chronicles? oh the
practical lessons are so many for you
and for me. What cheer in this sub
iect for all those Of you who are in oon-
junction of hostile circumstances. Three
things were against Benaiah of my text
in the moment Of combat, the snow
that impeded his movements, the pit
that environed him in a small space
and the lion with open jaws and up
lifted paw. And yet 1 hear the shot of
Renaiah's victory. Oh. men and women
Of three troubles. You say, II could
stand one, and 1 think l could stand
two; but three are at least one too
many"
There Is a man in business perplex-
itv. and who has sickness in his family.
and old age Is coming on. Three
troubles; a lion, pit and snowy day.
There is good woman with failing
health. and a dissipated husband, and a
wayward boy-three troublesl There is
n Young man, salary cut down, bad