A Snowy Day
1Ch_11:22 : ’93He went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day.’94
Have you ever heard of him? His name was Benaiah. He was a man of stout muscle and of great avoirdupois. His father was a 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 for other wonders beside that of the text. An Egyptian five cubits in stature, or about seven feet nine inches high, was moving around in braggadocia and flourishing a great spear, careless as to whom he killed, and Benaiah of my text, with nothing but a 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, which makes us think of the story in our Greek lesson’97too hard for us if the sharper boy on the same bench had not helped us out with it’97in which Horatius 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 a club. The Macedonian hurled the javelin, but the Athenian successfully dodged 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 commanded, ’93Stop! Stop!’94
But Benaiah of the text is about to do something that will eclipse even the prowess of Dioxippus. There is trouble in all the neighborhood. Lambs are carried off in the night, and children venturing only a little way from their father’92s house are found mangled and dead. The land was infested with lions, and few people dared meet one of these grizzly beasts, much less corner or attack it. As a good Providence would have it, one morning a 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 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, Bertholdus Schwartz. Therefore, without gun or any kind of firearms, Benaiah of the text no doubt depended on the sharp steel edge for his own defense 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 a knife; but what Benaiah lacks in weapon he will make up in strength of arm and skill of stroke. But where is the lion? 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 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 these 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 clashed! But while a modern Du Chaillu, Gordon Cumming, 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 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 Benaiah is half covered with the tawny mane of the slain horror of Palestine.
Now you see how emphatic and tragic and trenchant are the words of my text: ’93He went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day.’94 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 are 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 combat: the snow that impeded his movement, the pit that environed him in a small space, and the lion, with open jaws and uplifted paw. And yet I hear the shout of Benaiah’92s victory. Oh, men and women of three troubles! You say, ’93I could stand one, and I think I could stand two; but three are at least one too many.’94
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 a snowy day. There is a good woman with failing health and a dissipated husband and a wayward boy’97three troubles! There is a young man, salary cut down, bad cough, frowning future’97three troubles! There is a maiden with difficult school lessons she cannot learn, a face that is not as attractive as some of her schoolmates, a prospect that through hard times she must quit school before she graduates’97three troubles! There is an author, his manuscript rejected, his power of origination in decadence, a numbness in forefinger and thumb, which threatens paralysis’97three troubles! There is a reporter of fine taste sent to report a pugilism instead of an oratorio, the copy he hands in rejected because the paper is full, a mother to support on small income’97three troubles! I could call out of this audience, if they would come at my call, five hundred 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 filled with sympathetic and applauding spectators, for we are ’93surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.’94 My brother, my sister, my father, my mother, what a chance you have! While you are in the struggle, if you only have the grace of Christ to listen, a voice parts the heavens, saying, ’93My grace is sufficient for thee;’94 ’93Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth;’94 ’93You shall be more than conquerors.’94
And that reminds me of a letter on my table written by some one, saying: ’93My Dear Doctor: You will please pardon the writer for asking that at some time when you feel like it, you kindly preach from the thirtieth Psalm, fifth verse: ’91Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,’92 and much oblige a downtown business man.’94 So to all downtown business men, and to all uptown business men, I say: if you have on hand goods that you cannot sell, and debtors who will not, or cannot, pay, and you are also suffering from uncertainty as to what Congress may do about the tariff, you have three troubles, and enough to bring you within the range of the consolation of my text where you find the triumph of Benaiah over a lion and a pit and a snowy day. If you have only one trouble, I cannot spend any time with you today. You must have at least three, and then remember how many have triumphed over such a trio of misfortune. Paul had three troubles: Sanhedrin denouncing him’97that was one great trouble; physical infirmity, which he called ’93a thorn in the flesh,’94 and although we know not what the thorn was, we do know from the figure he used that it must have been something that pierced him’97that was the second trouble; approaching martyrdom’97that made the three troubles. Yet, hear what he says: ’93If I had only one misfortune, I could stand that; but three are two too many?’94 No: I misinterpret. He says, ’93Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing all things.’94 ’93Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’94
David had three troubles: a bad boy, a temptation to dissoluteness, and dethronement. What does he say? ’93God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore, will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea.’94 John Wesley had three troubles: Defamation by mobs; domestic infelicity; fatigue from more sermons preached and more miles traveled than almost any man of his time. What does he say? ’93The best of all is, God is with us.’94 And when his poet brother, Charles Wesley, said to him, ’93Brother John, if the Lord were to give me wings, I’92d fly,’94 John’92s reply was, ’93Brother Charles, if the Lord told me to fly, I’92d do it, and leave him to find the wings.’94 George Whitefield had three troubles: Rejection from the pulpits of England because he was too dramatic’97that was one trouble; strabismus, or the crossing of his eyes that subjected him to the caricature of all the small wits of the day; vermin and dead animals thrown at him while he preached on the commons’97that 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, ’93Let me go to Mr. Whitefield’92s God.’94 Oh, I am glad that Benaiah was not the 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’92s 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 threshes his arms around him to revive circulation of the blood, 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 snowy day at Valley Forge well nigh put an end to the struggle for American independence. The snowy day demolished Napoleon’92s army on the way from Moscow. The inclemency of January and February weather has in some years bankrupted thousands of merchants. Long succession of stormy Sabbaths has crippled innumerable churches. Lighthouses veiled by the snow on many a coast have failed to warn off from the rocks the doomed frigate. Tens of thousands of Christians of nervous temperament by the depression of a snowy day almost despair of reaching heaven. Yet, in that kind of weather Benaiah of the text achieved his most celebrated victory; and let us by the grace of God become victors over influences atmospheric. If we are happy only when the wind blows from the clear northwest, and the thermometer is above freezing point and the sky is an inverted blue cup of sunshine poured all over us, it is a religion ninety-five 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 cruel paw against their suffering pillow. It was a 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 a December hurricane than after a ’93Mayflower,’94 they took possession of this great continent. And amid more chilly worldly circumstances many a good man or a good woman has taken possession of a whole continent of spiritual satisfaction, 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 that everything down in the pit that snowy day depended upon Benaiah’92s weapon. There was as much strength in one muscle of that lion as in all the muscles of both arms of Benaiah. It is the 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 it licks. The two great canines 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 ’93king of beasts.’94 Was it a dagger? Was it a javelin? Was it a knife? I cannot tell, but everything depended on it. But for that, Benaiah’92s body under one crunch of the monster would have been left limp and tumbled in the snow. And when you and I go into the fight with temptation, if we have 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 grace, Almighty deliverance. I do not care what you call it; I call it ’93Sword of the Spirit.’94 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 the powers which assault you, is a toy pistol against a Krupp gun; is a penknife held out against the brandished sabers of a Heintzelman’92s 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 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 a lion.
All of you have a big fight of some sort on hand, but the biggest and the wrathiest lion which you have to fight is what the Bible calls ’93The roaring lion, who walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.’94 Now, you have 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 presence of human beings tames him. But you ought to see him spring against the iron bars in the Zo’f6gical Gardens of Calcutta, and hear him roar for the prey. It makes one’92s 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 the presence of Pompey in the Roman Amphitheater. Lions came out and destroyed the camels which carried the baggage of Xerxes’92 army. In Bible times there were so many lions that they are frequently alluded to in the Scriptures. Joel, the prophet, describes the ’93cheek teeth’94 of a great lion; and Isaiah mentions among the attractions of heaven that ’93No lion shall be there’94; Solomon describes the righteous as ’93bold as a lion’94; Daniel was a great lion-tamer; and David and Jeremiah and St. John often speak of this creature.
But most am 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. That means destruction. Yes, he is a savage devil. Some of you have felt the strength of his paw, and the sharpness of his tooth, and the horrors of his rage. He roared at everything good when Lord Claverhouse assailed the Covenanters, and on St. Bartholomew’92s against the Huguenots, one August night when the bell tolled for the butchery to begin, and the ghastly joke in the street was, ’93Blood letting is good in August’94 and fifty thousand 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 centuries, he comes for you. 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: Rev_5:5 : ’93The Lion of Judah’92s tribe.’94 A Lamb to us, but a 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 overcome and which will be overcome. They glare at each other for a moment, and then, with full strength of muscle, they dash against each other like two thunderbolts of colliding storm-clouds, and with jaws like the crash of avalanches, and with resounding voice that makes the Himalayas tremble, and with a pull and tear and clutch and trample and shaking of the head from side to side, until it is too much for human endurance to witness; and, though one lion may be left dead, the one who has conquered crawls away lacerated and gashed and lame and eyeless, to bleed to death in an adjoining jungle. But if 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 one omnipotent stroke the devouring monster that would slay our soul, shall go reeling back into a pit ten thousand times deeper than that in which Benaiah slew the lion on a snowy day.
A word to all who are in a snowy day. Cheer up all disconsolates. The best work for God and humanity has been done on the snowy day. At gloomy Marine Terrace, Island of Jersey, the exiled Victor Hugo wrought the mightiest achievement of his pen. Ezekiel, banished and bereft and an invalid at Corn-hill, on the banks of the Chebar, had his momentous vision of the Cherubim, and wheels within wheels. By the dim light of a dungeon window at Bedford, John Bunyan sketches the ’93Delectable Mountains.’94 Milton writes the greatest poem of 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’92s servants have out of the 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: ’93Throw me into the Arno if you choose, the Resurrection Day will find me and that is enough.’94 Benaiah, on a cold, damp, cutting, snowy day gained leonine triumph. Hardship and trouble have again and again exalted and inspired and glorified their subjects.
The bush itself has mounted higher
And flourished, unconsumed, in fire.
Well, we have had many snowy days in our lives. Added to the chill of the weather, one snowy season a few years ago, was the chilling dismay at the non-arrival of the ocean steamer Gascogne. Overdue for eight days, many had given her up as lost, and the most hopeful were very anxious. The cyclones, whose play is shipwrecks, had been reported being in wildest romp all up and down the Atlantic. The ocean a few days before had swallowed the Elbe, and with un-appeased appetite seemed saying, ’93Give us more of the best shipping.’94 The Normandie came in on the same track the Gascogne was to travel, and it had not seen her. The Teutonic, saved almost by the superhuman efforts of captain and crew, came in and had heard no gun of distress from that missing steamer. There were pale faces and wringing hands on both continents, and tears rolled down cold cheeks on those snowy days. We all feared that the worst had happened, and talked of the City of Boston as never heard of after sailing. But at last, under most powerful glass at Fire Island, a ship was seen limping this way over the waters. Then we all began to hope that it might be the missing French liner. Three hours of tedious and agonizing waiting, and two continents in suspense! When will the eyeglasses at Fire Island make revelation of this awful mystery of the sea? There it is! Ha! Ha! The Gascogne! Quick! Wire the news to the city. Swing the 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. ’93She’92s safe! She’92s safe!’94 are the words caught up, and passed on from street to street. ’93It is the Gascogne!’94 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 gang-planks were swung out for the disembarkation, was a small part of the huzza that lifted both hemispheres into exultation. The flakes of snow fell on the ’93Extra’94 as we opened it on the street to get the latest particulars.
Well, it will be better than that when some of you are seen entering the harbor of heaven. You have had a rough voyage’97no 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 clear over the hurricane-deck, so that you were often compelled to say, ’93All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me,’94 and you were down in the trough of that sea, and down in the trough of the other sea, and many 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 Galilee, and now walks the wintry Atlantic, 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, ’93There shall be no more sea’94; and those standing on the other side will chant, ’93These are they which came out of great tribulation, and had their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.’94 Off the stormy sea into the smooth harbor. Out of leonine struggle in the pit, to guidance by the Lamb, who shall lead you 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.
Autor: T. De Witt Talmage