86 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



prey, and his dens with ravin,' ch. ii. 11, 12. Buffon, following 

 Pliny, Eustathius, and other ancient naturalists, informs us, that 

 while young and active, the lion subsists by hunting, and seldom 

 quits the deserts or the forests, where he finds plenty of wild ani- 

 mals ; but when he grows old, heavy, and less fit for the exercise 

 of hunting, he approaches frequented places, and becomes more 

 dangerous to man and the domestic animals. It has, indeed, been 

 remarked, that when he sees men and animals together, he attacks 

 the latter, and never the former, unless any man strike him ; for in 

 this case he is wonderfully alert in distinguishing the person who 

 hurts him, and he instantly quits his prey to take vengeance on the 

 offender. 



These traits in his character explain the reason that God so often 

 threatens to be as a lion to his ancient people. He discerns at 

 once who it is that transgresses his law, and is prompt in taking 

 vengeance on the sinner. They also throw light on the passage in 

 Hosea: 'For I will be unto Ephraim as a great lion,' that leaves 

 the forest and approaches the habitations of men, and is therefore 

 more to be dreaded ; 'and to the house of Jtidah as a young lion,' 

 that hunts his prey in the desert or the forest, and is therefore less 

 to be feared, ch. v. 14. How exactly this corresponds with histori- 

 cal fact, is well known to every careful reader of the scriptures; 

 for Ephraim, or the ten tribes, were driven away from their own 

 land into a distant region, where they were doomed to suffer a pro- 

 tracted exile; while Judah continued to hold his possessions a hun- 

 dred arid thirty-three years longer, and when carried into captivity 

 at the end of that period, by the king of Babylon, it was only for 

 the short term of seventy years, till the land had enjoyed her sab- 

 baths. 



The lion, like most other animals of the cat kind, is kept off by 

 large fires, which the inhabitants of Africa and Asia, where he is 

 chiefly found, light during the night to preserve their flocks and 

 herds. But these, even added to the barking of the dogs, and the 

 continued shoutings of the shepherds, are sometimes found insuffi- 

 cient to deter his approach. He has been known to outbrave all 

 the dangers which could be presented 10 him under such circum- 

 stances, and boldly leaping into the midst of the fold, to carry off 

 a sheep or a goat. How beautifully does the prophet allude to this, 

 when he promises the Divine interposition on behalf of God's an- 

 cient people : ' For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, like as the 

 lion and the young roaring lion on his prey, when a multitude of 

 shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their 

 voice, nor abase himself lor the noi.se of them : so shall the Lord of 

 hosts come down to fight for mou t it Zion, and for the hill thereof,' 

 Isaiah xxxi. 4. 



The lion is made the symbol of our exalted Redeemer. He was 

 a lamb in his sufferings and death, but he became ' the lion of the 

 tribe of Judah,' when .lie burst asunder the hands of death, forced 

 open the gpjve's devouring mouth, and returned to his father a 



