Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-03-02
1T WAS A SNOWY DAY
VET BeNAlAH WENT DOWN AND SLEW
A LION IN A PIT.

VET BeNAlA4 WENT DOWN AND SLEW
A LION IN A PIT.
Rev Dr. Talmagc breaches Upon Heroic
Deed-iIen Who Have Triuinphcd Over
/ Triad of MIsfortunes-A Thrilling Story.
The Everlasting Flora.
NEW YORK, Feb "a. Confined Win
ter storms seem to have no effect in d.
minishing tho great audiences that
gather every Sunday in and around the
Academy Of Music. Today the crowds
were as large as ever, ana the spacious
Academy was packed from pit to dome
! long before the services began DR.. Tai
mage took for his subject "A Snowy
Day, y tho text selected being Chroni
Giles XII, 22, He went down and slew
lion in pit in snowy day.
Have you ever heard of him? His name
was Benaiah. He was a man of stout
muscle and of great avoirdupois. His
father was hero and he inherited
proves. He was athletic and there was
iron in his blood, and the strongest bone
in his body was backbone. He is known
for other wonders besides that of the
text An Egyptian 5 cubits in stature,
or about Z feet inches high, was NOV
/ lug 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-
iian, 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 if the
smarter boy on the same bench had not
| helped us out with it, in which Ho-
ratius the Macedonian and Dioxippus
tho Athenian fought in the presence of
Alexander, the Macedonian armed with
shield and sword and iavelin 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 tho
Athenian tripped him up before hocould
strike with it, and then the Athenian
with his club would have beaten the life
ont of tho Macedonian, fallen among his
useless weapons, if Alexander had not
commanded, "Stopi Stop
Tracked In the Snow.
But Benaiah of the text is about to
do something that will eclipse even
that There is trouble in all the neigh
/ borhood. 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, and few
people dared meet one of these grizzly
beasts, much less corner or attack it.
As a good Providence would have it,
ono morning footstep of lion was
/ tracked in the snow 1t had been out
OH its devouring errand through tho
7 darkness, but at last it is found by tho
impression of the four paws on the white
surface of the ground which way the
wild beast came and which way it had
gone. Perilous undertaking, but Benai-
all, the hero of the text, arms himself
with such weapons as those early days
afforded, gunpowder having been in
vented in far subsequent century by
the German monk Bertholdus Schwarz.
/ 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
javelin; it may have been only 4
knife But what Benaiah lacks in
weapons he will make up in strength
of arm and skill of stroke But whefe
is the lion? We must not get off his
track III the snow The land has
many cisterns. or pits, for catching
rain, tho rainfall being very scarce
at certain seasons, and hence these
risterns, or reservoirs, are digged 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 cistorns which happened to
be free of water and is there painting
from the long run and licking its jaws
after q repast of human flesh and after
quafiing 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
lion, and the lion looks up at him.
| What moment it was when their eyes
clashedl But while modern Du Chail-
In, Gordon Cumming or Sir Samuel
Baker OF David Livingstone would
have inst brought the gun to the shoul-
der. and held the eye against the barrel,
md 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
vestige 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 Benaiah
is half covered with the tawny name OF
the slain horror of Palestine.
Three Troubles.
Now You see how emphatic and tragic
and tremendous are the words of my
text, He went down and slew lion III
pit in snowy day" Why put that
in the Bible: Why put it twice in the
Bible, once in the book of Samuel and
here in tho book Of Chronicles? Oh. tho
practical lessons are so many Cor you
and for mel What q cheer in this sub
lect for all those of you who are in CON
junction of hostile circumstances Three
'hings were against Benaiah Of my text
in the moment of combat, the SHOW that
impeded his movement, the pit that en-
gironed him i'll small space and the
lion, with open jaws and uplifted paw
And yet | hear the shout of Benaiah 5
victory Oh, men and women of three
troubles, you say, II could stand one,
and | think could stand two, hat three
are at least one too many.