Connecticut western news., 1895-02-28


 Alas for the man not fully armed down in the pit on snowy day, and before him lionl
 All my hearers and readers have | big fight of some sort on hand, but the biggest and the wrathiest lion which you havo, to fight is what the Bible calls "tho roaring lion who walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. " ! Now, you have never seen real lion unless you have seen him in India CT Africa. just after capture. Long caging | breaks his spirit, and the constant pres ence Of human beings james him. But you ought to see him spring against the | iron bars in the geological gardens Of | Calcutta and hear him roar for the prey. | It makes ones blood curdle, and you i shrink back, although you know there | is no peril. Plenty of lions in olden | time Six hundred of them were slaughtered on one occasion in the pres ence of Pompey in the Roman amphi- | theater. Lions came out and destroyed the camels which carried the baggage of Xerxes' army. In Bible times there were so many lions that they arc ire quently alluded to in the Scriptures. l Joel, the prophet, describes tho 'cheek teethn of great lion, and Isaiah men, tions among the attractions of heaven l that mo lion shall be there," and | Amos speaks of shepherd taking l lambs ear out of the mouth of lion, and Solomon describes the righteous as "boli as lion,'' and Daniel was 1 great lion tanner. and David and Jere- miah and St John often speak of this | creature.
 | But most ain I impressed by what l have quoted from the Apostle Peter when he calls the devil a lion. That means strength. That means blood thirstiness. That means cruelty. That | means destruction. Solne of you have i felt the strength of his paw, and the sharpness of his tooth, and the horror of his rage. Yes, he is a savage devil He roared at everything good when Lord l Claverhouse assailed the Covenanters, and Bartholomew against the Hugue- nots one August night when the bell tolled for the butchery to begin, and the ghastly joke in the street was, "Blood letting is good in August" !" and 50, 900 assassin knives were plunged into the victims, and this monster has had un- der his paw many of tho grandest souls of all time, and fattened with the spells of centuries he comes for you.
 But I am glad to say to all of you who have got the worst in such a strug gle that there is a lion on our side if you want him, Revelation V, 5, "The lion of Judah's tribe Lamb to us, but lion to meet that other lion, and you can easily guess who will beat in that fight, and who will be beaten. When two opposing lions meet in jungle in India, you cannot tell which will over come and which will be overcome. They glare at each other for a moment, and then with full strength of muscle they dash against each other like two thun- derbolts of colliding stormclouds. and with jaws like the crush of avalanches, and with resounding voice that makes the Himalayas tremble, and with pull and tear and clutch and trample and shaking of the head from side to side until it is too much for human endur- ance to witness; and, though one lion may be left dead, the one which has conquered crawls away lacerated and | gashed and lame and eyeless to bleed to death in an adjoining jungle. But if you and l feel enough our weakness in this battle of temptation and ask for tho ! divine help against that old lion of hell, des ,ribed in St. Peter, will go the stron- ger lion described in Revelation, and it will be no uncertain grapple, but under ono omnipotent stroke tho devouring monster that would slay our soul shall go reeling back into pit 10, 000 times deeper than that in which Benaiah slew the lion on snowy day.
 On Snowy Days.
 A word to ali who arc in a snowy day Oh, fathers and mothers who have lost children, that is tho weather that cuts through body and soul. But drive back the lion of bereavement with the thought which David Rae of Edinburgh got from the Scotch gravedigger. who was always planting white clover and tho sweetest flowers on the children s graves in the cemetery, and when asked why ho did so replied: ''Surely, sir, canna make over fine the bed coverin O little innocent sleeper that's waitin thero till it's Gods time to waken it, and cover it with the white robe, and wait it away to glory. When sic gran deur is waitin it yonder, it fit it should be decked oot here. think the Saviour that counts its dust sac precious will like to see the white clover sheet spread over it. Do ye moo think so, too, sir?'' Cheer up all, disconsolates. The best work for God and humanity has been done on the snowy day. At gloomy Ma rine Terrace, island of Jersey, the exile, Victor Hugo, wrought the mightiest achievement of his pen. Ezekiel, banish- ed and bereft and an invalid at Corn hill, on the banks of the Chebar, had his momentous vision of the cherubim and wheels within wheels. By the dim light of dungeon window at Bedford, John Bunyan sketches the "Delectable Noun. tains." Milton writes the greatest poem of all time without eyes. Michael An. gelo carved a statue out of snow, and all Florence gazed in raptures at its ex- quisiteness, and many of God servants have out of the cold cut their immortal ity. Prosecutions were the dark back ground that made more impressive the courage and consecration of Savonarola, who, when threatened with denial of burial, said, "Throw me into the Arno if you choose; the resurrection day will find mo, and that is enough '' BenaiaL on cold, damp, cutting, snowy day gained leonine triumph. Hardship and trouble have again and again exalted and inspired and Glorified their subjects
 The bush itself has mounted higher
 And fiourished unconsumed in fire.
 Well, wo have had many snowy days within the past month, and added to tho chill of the weather was the chill ing dismay at the nonarrival of the ocean steamer Gascogne. Overdue for eight days, many had given her up as lost, and the most hopeful wero very