St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-03-21
Gbe Californian.
THE BIRDS NEST.

the funeral of Miss Emily d. Smith,
East Hardwick, VT, by the pastor of
the congregational church, Rev. c.
B. Hubert.
The sparrow hath found house. and the
swallow n nest for herself even thine
affairs . Lord OF hosts Ps- S4:3
1t is quite impossible for any one
of us, when out on walk in sum-
mer, to fall upon a birds nest with
out an emotion of delight. 1t is so
cunningly hidden away, it is so cum
ninglv built. that the more weinspect
it the more we agree that "a thing OF
beauty is JOY forever" The emo
ton is greater than when we fall up
on wild flowers of the most exquisite
form and hue. since we have here the
genius of instinct working by design
Our admiration Is enhanced III OBJ
serving the wisdom that makes Sc
cretiveness the sole weapon of de-
fence. Find my nest if YOU can, is
the defiant challenge which the bird
issues to every intruder, hawk or
owl. cat, snake or malicious boy.
This delight we have in the bird 5
nest is mentally conjoined with a
sense of its sanctitv. Needlessly to
disturb it is to break the Golden
Rule In this consciousness we find
in part the image of Him who Great
ed us. God loves birds nests as well
as we, and more. Doth God care for
oxen, and have no interest III the
birds We have 1t on the best au-
thOritV that not one of them falls to
the ground without his notice. We
infer. If this IS His care for birds that
He is not Indifferent to their nests.
We are not therefore so much sur
prised as delighted when we find III
the Mosaic records birds nest so
exalted in importance as to be a sub
iect of divine legislation. To behold
that Infinite Being who is the Crea-
tor and uphOlder of all things, in
prescribing laws for our conduct, to
legislate in detail as to how we shall
treat a birds nest found upon the
ground, is a spectacle that ought to
awaken in us, not only q sense OF his
marvellous cOndcSccnsIOn, but invest
him with an infinite amiableness.
God seems to put Himself within the
reach of our hearts and to compel us
to love him, when we see him loving
the birds and statiOning his enact
ments like picket guards around their
nests
1t is not wonderful that Solomon,
who was an enthusiastic student OF
natural history, and whose navy of
Tarshish brought him not only gold
and silver and ivory, but apes and
peacOcks "-birds of foreign Chimes
should find in Il birds relation to her
nest one of the most beautiful and
striking of biblical figures. 'As a
bird that VANDERBILT from her nest,
so is man that VANDERBILT from his
place" Fond as birds are of the
perch where they pass the night, they
hold dearer vet the nests they have
built, and where they lay their eggs
and rear their Young. Nature has
no voice of more painful distress than
that of the mOther-bird over the mo-
lestatiOn of her nest; and especially
when after weeks of brOOding care
she has had entrusted to her i'll the
vase of her nest Il bouquet OF cluster
ing mouths You remember her
screaming notes when you in q
throng of schOOl-childrcn presumed
to approach and intermeddle with
her eggs or her little ones. Such too
is her hcart-ache, when your ruthless
Scvthe or mOwing-machine has dew
astatcd her little home. However
the catastrophe may happen, whcth-
er by cvclonic blast the motherhood
is driven away and wanders far and
lost from her nest; or some cruel in
truder, man or beast, has intcrfered-
it is all the same; there is no ambi-
guilty in the pitying wall But Solo
mon SAYS that that wall is but a
symbol of mans shrek of despair
when wandering from his place, he
is driven away in his wickedness.
The bird has it's natural habitat and
in it the definite spot where 1t has
reared its house and made its home.
To the motherhood there is no other
spot so dear. She has put diligence
into its making. it expresses her
thought and feeling. It's her Bethel,
the place of her rest, the seat of her
empire, the deposit of all her hopes
When deprived of it her despairing
agony is measured only by her ca
pacitv to suffer But Solomon says
that God who made the bird and its
habitat and conditioned its happi-
ness upon its keeping its place, also
created man with equivalent cOndl-
tions and limitations When God
created Adam he had place made
for him in Eden. As he had local
so he had spiritual habitatiOn in a
filial and blessed relationship with
God his father In this double sense
he was we'll placed His finite and
dependent nature required that he
should have his habitat, his sphere
and bounds of habitation. There
was one place i'll the universe for him
and but one it was with his Father
in an obedient and loving relation to
him For his development and hap
piness he was as absolutely Deepen
dent on the place God made him for
and assigned him to, and required
him to stay in, as the swallow IS up
on the nest she has built for herScl
and where she is rearing her Young
For man to believe otherwise, and
seek forbidden good is for him tC
confront the nature of things and dc
violence to his most central and sa
cred instincts.
But it was this very act Ofunreasor
which man committed, when, by
apostasv, he threw himself out of his
natural and ordained relation tC
God and so out of his sphere Mar
in sin Is out of place, where God neV
er made him to be, where he never
wanted him to be, and where ht
must be miserable so long as he stays
In his voluntary exile, his nature Is
torn and fragmentary and bleeding
at every pore. The storms OF pas
sion have broken the mysterious ca
BILE which held him in port and he /:
driven upon unknown seas In The