Greenfield Evening Republican, Greenfield, Hancock County, 25 February 1895 — Page 3

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A SNOWY DAY

WENT DOWN AND SLEW .ION IN A PIT.

nage Preaches Upon a Tleroic Who Have Triumphed Over .J§ Misfortunes—A Thrilling Story, jrlastiufj Flora.

tfORK, Feb. 24. —Continued winms seem to have no effect in diiing tlio great audiences that every Sunday in and around the -demy of Music. Today tho crowds K'$

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over, and the spacious

.J,C»l*cadcmy was packed from pit to dome long before tJio services began. Dr. Talmage took for his subject "A Snowy

Day," the text selected being I Chronicles 3ti, 22, "He went dowu and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day."

Have you ever heard of hhn? His name was Benaiah. He was a man of stout muscle and of groat avoirdupois. His father was a hero, and he inherited prowess. Ho was athletic, and thejo was iron in his blood, and the strongest bono in his body was backbone. Ho is known for other wonders besides that of tho text. An Egyptian 5 cubits in stature, or about 7 feet 9 inches high, was moving around in braggadocio and flourishing a great spear, careless as to whom ho killed, and Benaiah of my text, with nothing but a walking stick, came upon him, snatched tho spear l'rom tho Egyptian, and with ono thrust of its sharp edge put an end to the blatant bully, which makes us think of tho story in our Greek lesson, too hard for us if the smarter boy on tho samo bench had not helped us out with it, in which Horatius tho Macedonian and Dioxippus tho Athenian fought in the presence of Alexander, tho Macedonian armed with shield and sword and javelin and tho Athenian with nothing but a club. The Macedonian hurled tho javelin, but the Athenian successfully dodged it, and the Macedonian lifted the spear, but tho Athenian with the club broke it, and tho Macedonian drew tho sword, but tho Athenian tripped him up before he could strike with it, and then tho Athenian with his club would havo beaten tho life out of tho Macedonian, fallen among his useless weapons, if Alexander had not commanded, "Stop! Stop!"

Trucked In the Snow.

But Benaiah of tho text is about to do something that will eclipse even that There is trouble in all the neighborhood. Lambs are carried off in the night, and children venturing only a little way from their father's house are found mangled and dead. Tho fact is tho land was infested with lions, and few people dared meet one of these grizzly beasts, much loss corner or attack it. As a good Providence would have it, one morning a footstep of a lion was bracked in the snow. It had been out on its devouring errand through tho darkness, but at last it is found by the impression of the four paws on the white surface of the gfound which way the wild beast camo and which way it had gone. Perilous undertaking, but Benaiah, the hero of the text, arms himself with such weapons as those early days afforded, gunpowder having been invented in a far subsequent century by the German monk Berthoklus Schwarz. Therefore without gun or any kind of firearms, Benaiah of tho text no doubt depended on the sharp steel edgo for his own defense and the slaughter of the lion as he followed tho track through the snow It may have been

javelin it may have been only a knife. But what Benaiah lacks in weapons he will make up in strength of arm and skill of stroke. But where is the lion? Wo must not get off his track in tho snow. The land has many cisterns, or pits, for catching rain, the rainfall being very scarce at certain seasons, 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 theso cisterns which happened to be free of water and is there panting from the long run and licking its jaws after a repast of human flesh and after quaffing the red vintage of human blood.

Benaiah is all alert and comes cautiously 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 a moment it was when their eyes olashed! But while a modern Du Chaillu, Gordon Camming or Sir Samuel Baker or David Livingstone would have just brought the gun to the shoulder, and held the eye against the barrel, and blazed away into the depths, and finished the beast, Benaiah, with only the old time weapon, can do nothing until he gets on a 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 tho 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 mane of the slain horror of Palestine.

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Three Troubles. I

Now you see how emphatic and tragio and tremendous are the words of my text, "He went down and slew a lion in a pit a snowy day. Why put that in the Bible? Why put it twice in the Bible, once in the book of Samuel and here in the book of Chronicles? Oh, the practical lessons ar& so many for you and for me! What a 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 moment of oombat, the FIJOW that impedod his mpvement, tho pit that environed him' in a small spaco and the lion, with open jaws and uplifted paw. And yet I hear the shout of Benaiah's victory Oh, men and women of three troubles, you say, "I could stand one, and I think I could stand two, bat three are at least one too many.

There is a man in business perplexity and who has sickness in his family, and old age is coming on. Three troubles—a lion, a pit and snowy day. There is a good woman with failing health and a dissipated husband and a wayward boy—three troubles. There is a young man, salary cut- down, bad cough, frowning future—three troubles. There is a maiden with difficult school lessons she cannot get, a face that is not as attractive as some of her schoolmates', a prospect that through hard times she must quit school before she graduatesthree troubles. Thoro is an author, his manuscript rejected, his power of origination in decadence, a numbness in forefinger and thumb, which threatens paralysis—three troubles. There is a reporter of fine taste sent to report a pugilism instead of an oratorio, the copy ho hands in rejected because the paper is full, a mother to support on small income—three troubles. I could march right olf theso seats and across this platform, if they would come at my call, 500 people with three troubles. This is tho 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 filled with sympathetic and applauding spectators, for we are "surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses." My brother, my sister, my father, my mother, what a chance you havo! While you are in tho struggle, if you only have tho grace of Christ to listen, a voice parts the heavens, saying, "My grace is sufficient for thee," "Whom the Lord loveth he cliasteneth," "You shall be more than conquerors. And that reminds mo of a letter on my table written by some ono whom I supposo to be at this moment present, saying, "My dear, dear doctor, you will please pardon tho writer for asking that at some time when you feel like it you kindly preach from tho thirtieth psalm, fifth verse, 'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometli in tho morning,' and much oblige a down town business man."

So to all down town business men and to all xip town business men I say: If you havo on hand goods that you cannot sell and debtors who will not or cannot pay, and you are also suffering from uncerI tainty as to what the imbecile American congress will do about tho tariff, you have

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throe troubles, and enough to bring you within tho range of the consolation of my text, where you find tho triumph of Benaiah over a lion, and a pit, and a snowy day. If you have only one troubio, I cannot spend any time with you today. You must have at least three, and then remembor how many have triumphedover such a triad of misfortune. Paul had three troubles: Sanhedrin de-

nouncing him—that was one great trouble physical infirmity, which ho called 1 "a thorn in the flesh, and although wo know not what tho thorn was, we do know from tho figure housed that it must have been something that stuck him— that was the second trouble approaching martyrdom—that made tho three trou-

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bles. Yet hear what ho says, "If I had only ono misfortune, I could stand that, but three are two too many?" No. I misinterpret. Ho says: "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Poor, yet making many rich. Having nothing, yet possessing all things. "Thanks bo unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

David had throe troubles, a bad boy, a temptation to dissoluteness and dethronement. What does he say? "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore will not wo fear, though tho earth bo removed, and though tho mountains be cast into tho midst of the sea.

John Wesley had three troubles—defamation by mobs, domestic infelicity, fatigue from more sermons preached and moro miles traveled than almost any man of his time. What does he say? "The best of all is, God is with us." And when his poet brother, Charles Wesley, said to him, "Brother John, if the Lord were to give me wings, I'd fly," John's reply was, "Brother Charles, if tho Lord told me to fly, I'd do it and leave him to find the wings."

Depression of a Snow Day.

George Whitefield had three troubles —rejection from the pulpits of England because he was too dramatic—that was one trouble strabismus, or the crossing of his eyes, that subjected him to the caricature of all the small wits of tho day vermin and dead animals thrown at him while he preached on the commons— that made three troubles. Nevertheless his sermons were so buoyant that a little child, dying soon after hearing him preach, said in the intervals of pain, "Let me go to Mr. Wliitefield's God." Oh, I am so glad that Benaiah of my text was not tho only one who triumphed over a lion in a pit on a snowy day!

Notice in my text a victory over bad weather. It was a snowy day, when one's vitality is at a low ebb and the spirits are naturally depressed and one does not feel like undertaking a great enterprise, when Benaiah rubs his hands together to warm them by extra friction, or thrashes his arms abound him to revive circulation of 'the blbitfd, and' then goes at the lion, which was all the more fierce and ravenous because of the sharp weather. Inspiration here admits atmospheric hindrance. The snowv day at Valley Forge well Ui^hputaii end to tho struggle for Anierican independence. The snowy day.demolished Napoleon's army on the way from MospoVy.

The iftdleiaeiicy! of ?anUarjr aiid February weather has sotfie 'years bankrupted thousands of merchants. Long succession of stotiny Sabbaths has crippled innumerable churches. Lighthouses veiled by the suow, on many a coast have failed to warn off from the rocks the doomed frigata Tens of thousands of Christians of nervous temperament by the depression of a upOwy day almost despair1 of reaching htiiiVen. Yet in that style of weather Benaiah of the text achieved 'his most' celebrated victory, and let us by the grace of God become viotor over influences atmospheric. If we are happy only when the wind blows from the clear northwest, and the tliermomoter is abovo freezing point, and the sky is an inverted blue cup of sun-

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shine poured all over us, it is a religion

95 per cent off. Thank God there are Christians who, though their whole life through sickness has been a snowy day, have killed every lion of despondency that dared to put its cruuel paw against their suffering pillow. It was a snowy day when tho 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 a December hurricane than after a "Mayflower" they took possession of this great continent. And amid more chilly worldly circumstances many a good man or a good I woman has taken possession of a whole continent of spiritual satisfaction, valI leys of peaco 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.

A Blast.

Notice everything down in the pit that snowy day depended upon Benaiah's I weapon. Thoro was as much strength in one muscle of that lion as in all tho

muscles of both arms of Benaiah. It is tho strongest of beasts and has been known to carry off an ox. Its tongue is so rough that it acts as a rasp tearing off the flesh in licks. The two great canines at each sido of the mouth make escape impossible for anything it has once seized. Yet Benaiah puts his heel on tho neck of this "king of beasts." Was it a dagger? Was it a javelin? Was it a knife? I cannot tell, but. everything depended on it. But for that Benaiah's body under ono crunch of tho monster would have been left limp and tumbled in the snow. And when you and I go into the fight with temptation, if wo havo not the right, kind of weapon, instead of our slaying 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 I mean prayer to God, confidence in his rescuing power, saving graco, almighty deliverance. I do not care what you call it. I call it "sword of the 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 powerless at your feet. Your good resolution wielded against tho powers which assault you is a toy pistol against an armstrong gun is a penknife held out against the brandished sabers oi a Heintzelman's cavalry charge. Go into the light against sin on your own strength, and the result will bo the hot breath of the lion in your blanched faco, and his front paws ono on each lung. Alas! for tho man not fully armed down in tho pit on a snowy day, and bofore him a lion!

All my hearers and readers havo a big fight of sonio sort on hand, but the biggest and tho wrathiest lion which you have to fight is what the Biblo calls "tho roaring lion who walkoth about, seeking whom ho may devour." Now, you havo never seen a real lion unless you have seen him in India or Africa, just after capture. Long caging breaks his spirit, and the constant prosenco of human beings tames him. But you ought to seo him spring against the iron bars in tho zoological gardens of Calcutta and hear him roar for tho prey, It makes one's 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 in tho presenco of Pompey in tho Roman amphitheater. Lions came out and destroyed tho camels which carried the baggage I of Xerxes' army. In Bible times there I were so many lions that they are freI quently alluded to in the Scriptures. I Jool, tho prophet, describes the "cheek teeth" of a great lion, and Isaiah inenI tions among the attractions of heaven that "no lion shall be there," and

Amos speaks of a shepherd taking a lamb's ear out of the mouth of a lion, and Solomon describes the righteous as "bold as a lion," and Daniel was a great lion tamer, and David and Jeremiah and St. John often speak of this creature.

But most aui I impressed by what I have quoted from the Apostle Peter when he calls the devil a lion. That means strength. That means bloodthirstiness. That means cruelty. Thatmeans 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 Claverhouse assailed the Covenanters, and Bartholomew against the Huguenots one August night when the bell tolled for the butchery to begin, and the ghastly joke in the street was, "Blood letting is good in August," and 50,000 assassin knives were plunged into the victims, and this monster has had under his paw many of the grandest souls of all time, and fattened with the spoils of oenturios he comes for you.

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But I am glad to say to all of you who have got the worst in such a struggle that there is a lion on our side if you want him, Revelation v, 5,

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lion of Judah's tribe. A Lamb to up, but a'lioii to meet that'bther 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 overcome and which Will be overcome. They glare at ea'ch other fot a moment, and then with full strength of muscle th'ey dash against each other like two thunderbolts of colliding stormclouds, and with jaws like the crush of avalanches, and with a resounding voice that makes the Himalayas tromble, and with a pull and tear and clutch and tram'ple And shaking of the head froth eidbtoside Until it is too much for human endurance to witness, and, though one lion may be left dead, the one which has conquered crawls away lacerated and gashed and lame aiid eyeless to bleed to death in an adjoining jungle. Butif you and I feel enough our weakness in this battle of temptation and ask for the divine help against that old' lion of hell,

described in St. Peter, will go the stronger lion described in Revelation, and it will be no uncertain grapple, but under ono omnipotent stroke the devouring monster that would slay our soul shall go reeling back into a pit 10,000 times deeper than that in which Benaiah slew the lion on a snowy day.

On Snowy Days.

A word to all who are in a snowy day. Oh, fathers and mothers who havo lost children, that is tho weather that cuts through body and soul. But drive back tho lion of bereavement with the thought which David Raeof Edinburgh got from the Scotch gravedigger, who was always planting white clover and the sweetest flowers on the children's graves in the cemetery, and when asked why he did so replied: "Surely, sir, I cauna make ower fine the bed coverin o' a little innocent sleeper that's waitin there till it's God's time to waken it, and cover it with the white robe, and waft it away to glory. When sic grandeur is waitin it yonder, it's fit it should bo decked oot here. I think the Saviour that counts its dust sae precious will like to see the white clover sheet spread ower it. Do ye noo think so, too, sir?" Cheer up all, disconsolates. The best work for God and humanity has been done on tho snowy day. At gloomy Marino Terrace, island of Jersey, tho exile, Victor Hugo, wrought tho mightiest achievement of his pen. Ezekiel, banished and bereft and an invalid at Cornhill, on tho banks of theChebar, had his momentous vision of tho cherubim and wheels within wheels. By the dim light of a dungeon window at Bedford, John Bunyan sketches the "Delectable Mountains. Milton writes the greatest poem

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all time without eyes. Michael Angelo carved a statue out of snow, and all Florence gazed in raptures at its exquisiteness, and many of God's servants have out of tho cold cut their immortality. Persecutions were the dark background that made more impressive the courage and consecration of Savonarola, who, when threatened with denial of burial, said, "Throw me into tho Arno if you choose the resurrection day will find me, and that is enough. Benaiah on a cold, damp, cutting, snowy day gained leonine triumph. Hardship and troublo have again and again exalted and inspired and glorified thoir subjects.

Tho bush itself hira mounted higher And flourished unconsumed in fire. Well, we have had many snowy days within the past month, and added to tho chill of tho weathor was tho chilling dismay at the nonarrival of the ocean steamer Gascogne. Overdue for eight days, many had given her up as lost, and the most hopeful wore very anxious. The cyclones, whose play is shipwrocks, had been reported being in wildest romp all up and down tho Atlantic. Tho ocean a few days before had swallowed tho Elbe, and with unappeased appetite seemed saying, "Give us more of tho best shipping.'' Tho Normandio camo in on the same track the Gascogno was to travel, and it had not seen her. The Teutonic, saved almost by tho superhuman efforts of captain and crew, came in and had heard no gun of distress from that missing steamer. There wore pale faces and wringing hands on both continents, and tears rolled down cold cheeks on those snowy days. Wo all feared that tho worst had happened and talked of the City of Boston as never hoard of after sailing, and tho steamship President, on which the brilliant Cookman sailed, never reported and never to bo heard of again until tho time when tho sea gives up its dead. But at last, under most powerful glass at Fire island, a ship was seen limping this way over the waters. Then wo all began to hope that it might bo the missing French liner. Three hours of tedious and agonizing waiting and two continents in suspenso. When will the eyeglasses at Fire island make revelation of this awful mystery of tho sea? There it is! Ha, ha! The Gascogne! Quick! Wiro the news to the city! Swing tho flags out on the towers! Ring the bells! Sound the whistles of the shipping all the way up from Sandy Hook to New York Battery! "She's safe! She's safe!" are the words caught up and passed on from street to street. "It is the Gascogne!" is the cry sounding through all our delighted homes and thrilling all the telegraphic wires of the continent and all the cables under the sea, and the huzza on the wharf as the gangplanks were swung out for disembarkation was a small part of the huzza that lifted both hemispheres into exultation. The flakes of snow fell on the "extra" as we opened it on the street to get the latest particulars.

From Chill Snow to White Flowers!

Well, it will be better than that when some of you are seen entering the harbor of heaven. You have had a 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 temptation have swept dear over the hurricane deck, so that you were often compelled to say, "All thy waves and thy1 billows have gone over me," and you were down in the trough of, that sea and down in the trough of the other sea, and many despaired of you* safe arrival. BUt the gr&rii pilot, not one who must come off .from sotue other craft, but the one' who walked storm iwept Galilee and: noW walks the wintry Atlantic^ comes on board and heads y'bu foir the haven, when no sooner ftay?

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narrows of death than you,find all the 'banks fined 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 came out of greatf, tribulation and had their robes Washetj. and made white in the blood of the Lanib." Off of the stormy sea into the.smooth harboh Otit of leonine struggle in the ^it td guidance by the Lamb,' who khall lead ybU to living fountains of water. Out of the snowy day of earthly severities into the gardens of everlasting flora and into orchards of eternal fruitage, the fall of their white blossoms the only snow in heaven.

By

William H. Hcrndon

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The Most Authentic and Interesting Account of

His Life and Personal— Character

For 20 years Lincoln and Herndon were Partners and Confi dential Friends. Their relations were intimate and no man living is better qualified than Herndon

T"' to give a just, true &hd intelligent

Study of Lincoln's True Charactei

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IThat

ihiubiwiiihwmiptfiPim in WWII in ii w»n

As revealed by his Habits and his Daily Life.

NOTHING IS SUPPRESSED

Which may legitimately contribute to a true .. v. understanding of this Greatest of Americans.

We Announce With Pride

we have secured the to publish

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The Martyred President

The

Law Partne of Lincoln

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