The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-03-06
TRIAD OF TROUBLES.
REV. DR. TAI MAGE PREACHED ON BE-
NAlAH's GREAT COURAGE.

NAlAH's GREAT COURAGE.
The Christian May Overcome Sin and Mis-
fortune by the Sword Of the Spirit. The
Lion of Bereayement--The Harbor of
Heaven.
New YORK, Feb. 24.-Continued
winter storms seem to have no effect in
diminishing the great audiences that
gsther 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 sub
ject GA Snowy Day" the text selected
being I Chronicles VI, %, He went
down and slew lion 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 a hero, and he inherit
ed prowess He was athletic, and
there was iron in his blood, and the
strongest bone in his body was back
bone. He is known for other wonders
besides that of the text. An Egyptian
five cu5its In stature, or about feet
9 inches high, was moving around IN
braggadocio and fourishing great
spear, careless as to whom he killed,
and Benaiah of nv text, with nothing
but walking stick, came upon him,
snatched the spear from the Egyptian,
and with one thrust of its sharp edge
put an end to the blatant bully, There
IS trouble In all the neighborhood.
Lambs are carried off In the night, and
children vehturing only a 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
beast, much less corner Or attack it.
As good Providence would have
it, one morninga footstep of a lion
was tracked in the snow. It had been
out on its devouring errand through
the darkness, but at last it is found by
the impression of the four paws on the
white surface of the ground, which
way the wild beast came and which
way it had had gone. Perilous under
taking, but Benaiah, the hero of the
text, arms himself with such weapons
as those early day afforded, gunpow-
der having been invented in far sub
sequent century by the German monk,
Bertholdus Schwar. Therefore, with
out gun or any kind Of firearms, Be
naiah of the text no doubt depended
on thesharp steel edge for his own de-
fense and the slaughter of the lion as
he followed the track through the
snow. It may have been a javelin 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 ion2 We
must not get off his track in the snow.
The land has many cisterns, Or pits,
for catching rain, the rainfall being
very scarce at certain sessions, and
hence these cisterns 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 I
speak retreats into one of thesecisterns
which happened to be free of water,
and is there painting from the long
run and licking its jaws after a repast
of human flesh and after quamng the
red vintage Of human blood.
Benaiah IS all alert and comes eau
iously on toward the hiding place of
this terror of the fields.
Coming to the verge of the
pit, he looks down atthe lion, and the
lion looks up at him. What a moment
it was when their eyes clashed! But,
while a modern, Du Chailu, Gordon
Cumming or Sir Samuel Baker or
David Livingstone would have just
brought the gun to the shoulder and
held the eve against the barrel and
blazed away into the depths and finish
ed 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 Ben
aiah is half covered with the tawny
name of the slain horror Of Palestine
Now you see how emphatic and
tragic and tremendous are the words
of my text, He went down and slew
aEon in a pit in a snowy day" Why
put that in the Bible2 Why put it
twice in the Bible-once in book of
Samuel and here in the book of Chroni-
cles? Oh, the practical lessons are so
many for you and for me! What
cheer in this subject for all those of
you who are in conjunction of hostile
circumstances. Three things were
against Benaiah OF my text in the mo-
ment of combat-the snow that imped
ed his movement, the pit that environ
ed him in small space and the lion,
with open jaws and uplfted paw. And
vet I hear the shout of Benaiah's vic
tory. O men and women of three
troubles! You say, II could stand one,
anu j Guluh CoGI0 SU<10o wv OOG
three are at least one too many"
Icould march right off these seats
and across this platform, if they would
come at my call, 500 people with three
troubles. This is the opportunity to
play the hero or the heroine, not on a
small stage with a few hundred people
to clap their approval, but with all
the galleries Of heaven filed with
sympathetic and appIauding spectators
for we are surrounded BY a great
cloud Of witnesses. My brother, my
sister, my father, my mother, what
chance you have! While you are in
the struggle, if you only have the
grace of Christ to listen, voice parts
the heavens, saying, ''My grace is suf-
fcient for thee" 9sWhom the Lord
loveth, he chasteneth." 'sYou shall
he moro than cono11erOrs - Paul had