When the man walked fast, the lion walked fast; when the man stopped, the lion stopped also. The big idea in the lion's head was to follow him all day until dark, and then in the dark spring upon him. This was the way the man outwitted the lion. When he came to a high cliff below which there was a deep hollow in the rock, he climbed down into this cleft where the lion could not see him. Here he fixed a stick on the rocks and put on it his hat and coat so as to make them look like a man, and then hid under the rock to watch results. Soon the lion came creeping slyly along, and seeing the coat and hat he made a sudden spring at them, and falling down on the rocks below, was killed. But you see I was safe in the cage with Atlas, because they took good care of him and he was not hungry.
I concluded by telling the little folks about the story of Daniel who was cast into a den of lions, which is the most remarkable lion story in the world, for in those days they kept the lions in a state of hunger so that they might destroy their victims with haste. Daniel was saved from the hungry beasts because God sent his angel, and they could not open their mouths and had no desire for food. Our God is able to deliver his children.
THE BABY LION
One morning when I went to see my friend Atlas in the winter quarters the friendly keeper said to me, "Doctor, look into the lions' cage, in yonder corner." When I did so, what do you think, children, I saw there? Lying close to its big mother lion I saw a little baby lion fast asleep. The big mother seemed very proud of it, for she looked at me with her big eyes and seemed to say, "This is the most wonderful baby of the lion kingdom." And when the little baby opened his eyes I thought so too. After a few days the little fellow would play on the floor with me. He looked just like a big cat, and often when he went after the ball I sent rolling over the floor, he seemed to be a big cat and had the cat's way when he played.
I took him to my church one day. The first lion who ever went to Sunday school—and as it was an anniversary day with the school I gave an object-talk with the little fellow in my arms. I told the children that this lion, so docile and harmless, had a wild nature, and in a short time when that nature was fully developed it would not be safe for the boys and girls to come near him. The little paw which I held in my hands would soon be so strong and wild that it could bring down in death the strongest man alive. I then permitted a few little girls to come to the platform and hold the little fellow for a few moments, which they did with great glee and will tell their children's children of the day when they held a real living baby lion in their arms. I then told them that we all like lions have an evil nature. While we are young we are like this little lion, gentle and mild, but later on when our wild nature develops we do very wicked things and become sinners. The little lion must always be a lion, there is no power on earth that can change its nature. But although we have an evil nature, Jesus has come to take away the evil within us and make us his gentle, obedient, and loving children. I then told the children how much the mother lion loved her little baby. Mother love is so strong that she is
A Baby Lion, Six Weeks Old, Receiving the Name of the Youngest Baby in the Audience
most dangerous when she has little cubs of her own; she so greatly fears the stranger will do them harm.
Then I told a baby lion story. A circus was in progress at Woodbury, N.J., one afternoon in May, 1919, when the keeper of a lioness named Lucy and her two cubs entered her cage. He succeeded without difficulty in driving the mother lion into a compartment at the other end of the cage, thus separating her from her cubs. All would doubtless have gone well had he not stopped to fondle the cubs. This aroused the wild anger of the mother, and she sprang with all her might against the separating door, burst it open, and seized the keeper by the neck and killed him instantly. She was transferred into a mad lion when she thought her cubs were in danger. This story shows us how much the mother lion loves her little ones.
About this time the baby lion grew restless and wanted to go home, so when we had named the little cub Norman after the youngest child present that afternoon, we took him back to his mother.