The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1862-04-17
NUMBER 80.
The Spring Time.

The following beautiful passage occurs
in sermon recently preached by Henry
Ward Beecher:
There is something even more touching
than this. 1t is the flight of birds. All
summer they have filed the woods
They sing from the trees. They rise
from thickets and weed -muf1lcd fences,
as In our wanderings we scare them
They sing in the air. They wake US with
their mathis. They chant vespers with
glorious discordance of sweet melody
They fit across the lawn, rise and fall on
the swinging twig, or rock to the wind on
their aerial perch.
But after August they become mute /;
and in October days they begin to recede
from the dwelling. No more twittering
wrens no more circling swallows mo more
ing as if they were heart broken. They
begin now to come in troops in the dis
tant field. At sunset the pasture is full
of focks of hundreds and thousands. At
morning they are gone. And every day
brings its feathery caravan. Every day
| they pass on. Long hocks of fowl, silent
ly move far up against the sky, and al
ways going from the North. AT evening
the weary string of water fowls, flying low
and wistful to some pond for rest and food
fill the air with hoarse trumeting aud
, clangor. They are going. Winter is be-
hind them summer is before them ; and
we are left. The season is bereft. Life
is short; darkness is long. Flowers are
sunken to rest The birds have flown
away. Winter, aointer WINTER is upon
the earth
At last como the december days. The
shortest is reached. Then a few days
stand alike. Then the solar blaze creeps
for ward minute in the evening. A lit
tie more again more, till half hours ring
around the horizon-till hours are strung
upon the days-tIll the earth comes back
till ponds unlock themselves. The for
ests grow purple twigged. The great
winds sigh and rage. March busters
and smiles by turns-a giant that now is
cross, and now kind. The calves begin
to come Lambs bleat The warm hills
are plowcd. At last the nights are with
out frost.
At length we wake, some unexpected
morning, and the blue birds call is in the
tree. We throw up the sash. There Is
smell of soil and leaf in the air. The
DOpisil UQAS uiS eiS peilii- oO
air is warm and moist The birds are
surely here they answer each other =
the sparrow, the blue bird, the robin, and,
afar off on the edges Of the swamp, the
harsh twanging notes of the black-bird-
1t is spring
Oh, with what sense of emancipation
do we hear the birds sing again! God
sends his choirs to sing over night and
death for us. Winter, that buried all, Is
herself put away. Death is swallowed
up in victory, and nature chants the re-
QUEEN of the past, and the JOY of the fu-
ture. Now, days shall grow longer, and
warmer. Now, industry shall move free
ly. Now, flowers shall come up. Seed
shall be sown. Doors and windows shall
stand open all day long. Around about
the barn the hens shall cackle and crow.
Children shall shout. Spring has come
and all things rejoice at their release
No more inhospitable snow no more
blight of cold. All is promise. Men go
forth with seed and roots and scions.-
The orchard and garden and field are full
of life.
"The winter is past the rain is over
and gone the flowers appear on the
earth the time Of the singing of birds Is
come, and the voice of the turtle is heard
in our land"
Is this, now, mere ornamental pas
sage of scripture? Scripture has no pas
sages that are mere ornaments. Things
ornamental there are in it, but they carry
marrow and meat. Unlike all other liter
ature Scripture never merely decorates.-
If there is figure, it is always for some
errabd of moral meaning. There is no
descriptions sake. There is no poetry
for mere esthetical pleasure. There is
always profit withal.
Nature, then, teaches that to every sea-
son Of trouble and overthrow, there comes
resurrection. In the deepest January Of
the year there is a nerve that runs for
ward to June. Life is never extinguish-
cd That which seems to be death, reach
es forward and touches that which is Vi
tai
Dzy@ 4 singular incident Is related of