THE LION. 89 



fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.' That the 

 wicked are intended in this passage, is evident from the context: 

 ' Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity and sow wicked- 

 ness, reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the 

 breath of his nostrils are they consumed,' Job iv. 8, 9, 10. These 

 are only a few of the numerous instances in which the sacred wri- 

 ters use the name to express the temper and conduct of wicked 

 men. Not only the vicious and profane, the cruel and the unjust, 

 in the private walks of life, but also the sceptred oppressor, the 

 blood-stained conqueror, the warlike nation, are stigmatized in the 

 holy scriptures, and held up to the execration of all mankind, under 

 this odious name : * Their roaring shall be like a lion ; they shall 

 roar like young lions : yea, they shall roar and lay hold of the prey, 

 and shall carry it away safe, arid none shall deliver it,' Isaiah v. 29. 

 But the name is not confined to the human character; it is extended 

 also to everything hurtful or destructive to mankind. The sword, 

 for example, is, by the prophet, compared to the lion on account of 

 the desolations which it is the means of accomplishing : ' Your 

 own sword hath devoured your prophets like a destroying lion,* 

 Jer. ii. 30. If these statements have not removed any of the diffi- 

 culties which the biblical reader meets with in his progress, they 

 prove beyond a doubt the closeness and accuracy with which the 

 sacred writers copy nature, and the admirable fitness and propriety 

 of their allusions ; and this is no insignificant service to the interest* 

 of religion. 



8* 



