Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/245

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minds of those around them. And they who suddenly "spring upon their prey," who thrust forth an observation, or an argument, leaving it to work its own way in the heart.

Taking this view of the correspondent figure, we may ask. What is meant by the mouth and the teeth of the lion, so often mentioned? The mouth is the outlet for the voice. So in the case of the parties mentioned, the means which they employ are falsehood, errors, false doctrines—these are the mouth of the lion. By these he destroys truth, and renders good useless. In the opposite sense, the mouth of the lion is truth, true doctrines, and well-founded opinions. By these he destroys falsehood, and renders evil powerless.

Again, the teeth of the lion are those instruments by which it seizes and rends its prey. So, in an evil sense, the teeth of the lion are those principles of human learning and science by which the truth is rent or perverted; and in a good sense, they represent the same science and learning used to destroy falsehood, and to separate truth for digestion in the mind.

Like most correspondences employed in Scripture, the lion has an evil or a good signification according to the subject treated of. In a good sense it represents the principle of truth destroying falsehood, or Divine truth actuated by Divine power. In an evil sense, it represents the power of falsehood derived from evil, destroying good and truth in the mind.

Thus the Devil, or the powers of evil—understood by that aggregate term—is said to be "a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour," But our Lord is called "the Lion of the tribe of Judah!" The first, because evil is ever on the watch to destroy truth and