Milford chronicle., 1895-03-01

The Christian May Overcome Sin and Mis-
fortune by the sword of the spirit-TIle
Lion Of Bereavement-The Harbor Of
Heaven.
NEW York, Feb. 24-Continued winter
storms seem to have no effect in diminish
ing the great audiences that gather every
Sunday in and around the Academy OF
Music. Today the crowds were as large
as ever, and the spacious Academy was
packed from pit to dome long before the
Services began. DR.. Talmage took for his
subject "A Snowy Day, the text selected
being 1 Chronicles xi, 90, He went down
and slew a lion in pit in snowy day
Have you ever heard of hims His name
was Benaiah. He was a man Of stout
muscle and Of great avoirdupois. His IA
ther was a hero, and he inherited prowess.
He was athletic, and there was iron in his
blood. and the strongest bone in his body
was backbon He is known for other
wonders besides that of the text. An Egyp-
tian five cubits in stature, or about rect
Q inches high, was moving around in Drag-
qadocio and dourishing a great spear,
careless as to whom he killed, and Be
uaiah of my text, with nothing but walk
ing stick, came upon him, snatohed the
spear from the Egyptian 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 ard for
rs If the smarter boy on the sam bench
had not helped us out with it, in which
Horatius the Macedonian and DiOxippus
the Athenian fought in the presence OF
Alexander. the Macedonian armed with
shield and sword and javelin, and the
Athenian with nothing but club. The
Macedonian hurled the javelin, but the
Athenian successfully lodged it, 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 Athenian with
his club would have beaten the life out Of
the Macedonian, fallen among his useless
weapons, if Alexander had not command
ed, "Stop, stopH
But Benaiah of the text is about to do
something that will eclipse even that.
There is trouble in all the neighborhood.
Lambs are carried off in the night, and
children venturing only a little way from
their fathers house are found mangled
and dead. The fact is, the land was in
tested with lions, and few people dared
meet one Of these grizzly beasts, much less
corner or attack it. As a good Providence
would have it, one morning footstep of a
lion was tracked in the snow. 1t had been
ont on its devouring errand through the
darkness. but at last it is found by the i'm
preston of the four paws on the white sur
face of the ground, which way the wild
beast came and which way it had gone
Perilous undertaking, but Benaiah, the
hero of the text arms himself with such
weapons as those early days afforded, gun
powder having been invented in far sub
sequent century by the German monk,
Bertholdus Sohwarz. 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
iavelin, it may have been only knife,
but what Benaiah lacks in weapon 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 oisterns, or pits, for catch
ina rain, the rainfall being very scarce at
certain seasons, and hence these oisterns
or reservoirs are digged here and there and
wonder Lions have an instinct which
seems to tell them when they are pursued,
and this dread monster of which l speak
retreats into one of these cisterns which
bappened to be free Of water, and is there
painting from the long run and licking lts
laws after repast Of human flesh and aft
er quafing the red vintage Of human
blood.