The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-03-09

q snowy day, have killed every lion OF
dependency that dared to put its
cruel paw against their suffering
pillow. Il was snowy day
when the pilgrim fathers set foot,
not on a bank of flowers. but
on the cold New England rock,
and from a ship that might have been
more appropriately called after De-
cember hurricane than ''Maydower, !"
they took possession of this great con-
tinent. And amid more chilly worldly
circumstances many good man or
good woman has taken possession OF a
whole continent of spiritual satisfnc-
ton, valleys of peace, and rivers of
gladness, and mountains of joy. Christ
landed in our world not in the month
of May, but in the stormy month Of
December, to show us that we might
have Christ in winter weather, and on
a snowy day.
Notice everything down in the pit
that snowy day depended upon Ben
aiah's weapon. There was as much
strength in one muscle of that lion as
in all the muscles of both arms of Ben
aiah. 1t is the strongest of beasts,
and has been known to carry off an OK.
Its tongue is so rough, that it acts as
rasp tearing off the flesh it ticks. The
two great CANNES at each side Of the
mouth make escape impossible for
anything it has once seized. Yet Ben
aiah puts his heel on the neck of the
'king of all beasts" Was it dagger?
Was it javelin? Was it a knife? I
can not tell, but everything depended
on it. But for that, Benaiah's body
under one craunch of the mon,
ster would have been left limp and
tumbled in the snow. And when you
and go into the fight with temptation,
If we have not the right kind of weap-
on, instead of our Staying the lion,
the lion will slay us. The sword of
the spiritl Nothing in earth or hell
can stand before that. Victory
with that or no victory at all.
by that 1 mean prayer to God,
confidence in His rescuing power, saw
ing grace, Almighty deliverance. l
do not care what you call it; / call it
"Sword of Spirit" And If the lions of
all the jungles of perdition should at
once spring upon your soul, by that
weapon of heavenly metal you can
thrust them back. and cut them down,
and stab them through, and leave them
p6werless at your feet. Your good res
olution welded against the powers
which assault you is a toy pistol against
an Armstrong gun; is a penknife held
out against the brandished sabers of
Heintzelman's cavalry charge. Go in
to the fight against sin on your own
strength, and the result will be the hot
breath of the lion in your blanched
face, and his front paws, one on each
lung. Alas! for the man not fully
armed, down in the pit, on a snowy
day, and before him lion.
All my hearers and readers have
big fight of some sort on hand, but the
biggest and the wrathiest lion which
you have to fight is what the Bible
calls "The roaring lion, who walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour."
Now, you have never seen real lion
unless you have seen him in India or
Africa, just after capture. Long Gag
ing breaks his spirit, and the con-
slant presence of human beings
tames 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. 1t
makes ones blood curdlc, and you
shrink back, although you know there
is no peril. Plenty of Ions in olden
time. Six hundred of them were
slaughtered on one occasion in the
presence of Pompey in the Roman
amphitheater. Lions came out and
destroyed the camels which car
ried the baggage of Xerxes' army.
In Bible times there were so many
lions that they are frequently al
luded to in the Scriptures. Joel, the
prophet, describes the ''cheek teeth"
of great lion; and Isaiah mentions
among the attractions of Heaven that
''no lion shall be there;" and Amos
speaks OF shepherd taking lambs
ear out of the mouth of a lion; and
Solomon describes the righteous as
a lion;" and Daniel was a great lion
tanner; and David, and jeremiah, and
st. John often speak of this creature.
Well, it will be better than that when
some of you are seen entering the har-
Dor of Heaven. You have had rough
voyage-no mistake about that. Snowy
day after snowy day. Again and again
the machinery of health and courage
broke down, and the waves of tempta-
ton have swept clear over the
hurricane deck, so that you
were often compelled to say: "All
Thy waves and Thy pillows have
gone over me-" and you were
down in the trough of that sea, and
manv despaired of your safe arrival.
But the great pilot, not one who must
come off from some other craft, but
the one who walked storm-swept Cali
lee, and now walks the wintry Allan
tic, comes on board, and heads you for
the haven, when no sooner have you
passed the narrows of death than you
find all the banks lined with immortals
celebrating your arrival, and while some
break off palm branches from the
banks and wave them, those standing
on one side will chant: ''There shall be
no more sea-" and those standing on
the other side will chant: "These are
they which come out of great tribu-
lation, and had their robes washed
and made white in The blood of the