Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-03-02

life through sickness has been q snowy
dag, have killed every lion OF despoGd
ency that dared to put its cruuel paw
against their suffering pillow. 1t was
snowy day when tho Pilgrim Fathers
set foot not OH bank Of flowers, but
on the cold New England rock, and
from ship that might have been more
appropriately called after December
hurricane than after "Mayfiower"
they took possession of this great eonti
nent And amid more chilly worldly cir
cumstances many a good man or good
woman has taken possession of whole
continent of spiritual satisfaction, val.
loys of peace and rivers of gladness and
mountains of joy. Christ landed in cur
world not in the month of May, bat i'll
the stormy month of December, to show
US that wo might have Christ i'll win
ter weather and on a snowy day.
Fearful Blast.
Notice everything down in the pit
that snowy day depended upon Benaiah's
weapon There was as much strength i'll
one muscle of that lion as III all the
muscles of both arms of Benaiah. 1t IS
the strongest Of beasts and has been
known to carry off an OK. Its tongue is
so rough that it acts as a rasp tearing
off the flesh in ticks. The two great
CANNES at each side of the mouth make
! escape impossible for anything it has
once seized Yet Benaiah puts his heel
on the neck of this liking of beasts. -
Was it dagger? Was it n iavelin?
| Was it knife? l cannot tell, but every
thing depended on it. But for that
Benaiah's body under one crunch of the
monster 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
| Spirit Nothing in earth or hell can
stand before that Victory with that,
Or no victory at all By that | mean
prayer to God, confidence in his rescuing
power, saving grace, almighty deliver
ance. do not care what you call it. !
call it "sword of the Spirit +" And if
the lions of all the jlngles of perdition
should at once spring upon your souf
by that weapon of heavenly metal you
can thrust them back, and cut them
down, and stab them through, and leave
them powerless at your feet. Your good
resolution welded against the powers
which assault you is toy pistol against
all armstrong gun; is penknife held
ont against the brandished sabers CT a
Heintzelman' s cavalry charge. Go into
| the fight against sin on your own
strength, and the result will be the hot
breath of the lion in your bianched face,
and his front paws one on each lung
Alas! for the man not fully armed down
in the pit on snowy day, and before
him lioni
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 1.-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 caging
breaks his spirit, and the constant pres
ence 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 curdle and you
shrink back, although you know there
is no peril. Plenty of lions in olden
time. Six hundred of them were
slaughtered on one occasion i'll 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 are fire.
quently alluded to in the Scriptures.
Joel, the prophet, describes the cheek
teeth" of a great lion, and Isaiah men
tons among the attractions of heaven
that ''no lion shall be there, and
Amos speaks of shepherd taking
lambs ear out of the mouth of lion,
and Solomon describes the righteous as
"bol1 as q lion, - and Daniel vas
great lion tanner, and David and Jere-
miah and St John often speak of tins
creature.
But most am | impressed by what
have quoted from the Apostle Peter
when he calls the devil lion. That
means strength. That means blood
thirstiness. That means cruelty. That
means destruction. Some of you have
| 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
| Clavefhouse assaulted the Covenanters,
and Bartholomew against the Hugue-
nots one August night when the bell
tolled for the butchery to begin, and the
CHASTITY joke in the street was, Blood
letting is good in August" and so, 600
assassin knives were plunged into the
victims, and this monster has had I'M
der his paw many of the grandest souls
of all time. and fattened with the spoils
of centuries he comes for you.
| But am glad to say to all Of you
who have got the worst in such a strug
gle that there is lion ON cur side if
you want him, Revelation V, 8, THE
lion of Judah's tribe y A 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 a jungle in
| India, you cannot tell which will over
come and which will be overcome. They
glare at each other for 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 a resounding voice that makes
/ the Himalayas tremble, and with pull
and tear and clutch and trample aud
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 Las
conquered crawls away lacerated and
gashed and lame and eyeless to bleed to
death in an adjoining Jungle But if
you and feel enough our weakness in
this battle of temptation and ask for the
hvine help against that old lion of hell.