The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-03-01
1T WAS A SNOWY DAY
kET BEkLAIAH WENT DOWN AND SLEW
A LION IN A PIT.

| Deed-Men Who Have Tr1umphed owe
Triad of Misfortunes-A Thrilling Story
The Everlasting Flora.
NEW YORK, Feb. 24.-Continued win
Yer storms seem to have no effect in di
diminishing the great audiences tina
gather every Sunday in and around thu
Academy of Music. Today the crowds
were as large as ever, and the spacious
Academy was packed from pit to dome
Aong before the services began. DR.. Tai
mage took for his subject "a Snowy
Day" the text selected being Chroni
cles XII, %, ''He went down and slew g
Zion in a pit in a snowy day.
Have you ever heard of him? His name
was Benaiah He was man Of stout
muscle and of great avoirdupois. His
father was hero, and he inherited
prowess He was athletic and there was
Iron in his blood, and the strongest bone
IN his body was backbone. He is known
kor other wonders besides that Of the
text An Egyptian oubits in stature,
or about feet inches high, was NOV
uk dIOuuu Ill DldSSdtiOSAO anu hOuA Ach'
ding great spear, careless as to whom
he killed, and Benaiah of my text, with
nothing but walking stick, came upon
him, snatched the spear from the Egyp-
tian, 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
emarter boy on the same bench had not
helped us out with it, in which Ho-
1atius 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 buried 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
"Stopl Stopr'
e. Tracked In the Snow. az ~
But Benaiah Of the text is about to
do something that will eclipse even
that There is trouble in all the neigh
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.
Az good Providence would have it,
one morning footstep of lion was
tracked in the snow. 1T had been out
ON it's devouring errand through the
darkness, but at last it is found by the
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-
ah, the hero Of the text, arms himself
with such weapons as those early days
gunpowder having been in
rented in far subsequent century by
he German monk Bertholdus Schwarz-
Therefore without gun or any kind of |
irearms, Benaiah of the text no doubt |
depended on the sharp steel edge for
lis own defense and the slaughter Of
he lion as he followed the track
through the snow. 1t may have been
! javelin; it may have been only a
,nife But what Benaiah lacks in
Weapons he will make up in strength
f arm and skill of stroke But where
8 the lion? We must not get off his
rack in the snow. The land has
many cisterns, or pits, for catching
ain, the rainfall being very scarce
t certain seasons, and hence these
isterns, or reservoirs, are digged here
nd there and yonder. Lions have
n instinct which seems to tell them
,hen they are pursued, and this dread
ne of these cisterns which happened to
e free of water and is there painting
rom the long run and licking its jaws
fter a repast of human flesh and after
uaffing the red vintage of human blood.
Benaiah is all alert and comes eau
ously ON toward the hiding place Of
MS terror of the fields. Coming to the
erge of the pit, he looks down at the
on, and the lion looks up at him.
What a moment it was when their eyes
lashedl But while a modern Du Chail-
4, Gordon Cumming or Sir Samuel
'aker or David Livingstone would
ave just brought the gun to the shout
er. and held the eye against the barrel,
nd blazed away into the depths, and
nished the beast, Benaiah, with only
ne old time weapon, can do nothing
ntil he gets OH level with the beast,
nd so be jumps into the pit, and the
on, with shining teeth of rage and
laws lifted to tear to shreds the last
estige of human life, springs for the
ian, while Benaiah springs for the
east But the quick stroke of the steel
ige flashed again and again and again
ntil the snow was no longer white and
le right foot of triumphant Benaiah
half covered with the tawny name of
10 slain horror of Palestine
Three Troubles.
Now you see how emphatic and tragic
nd tremendous are the words of my |
xt, HE went down and slew lion in
pit in a snowy day" Why put that
the Bible? Why put it twice in the
ible, once in the book of Samuel and {
sre in the book of Chronicles? Oh, the
tactical lessons are so many for you '
4