The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-11-04
THE WARNING TO FLY
DIR. TNLMAGE POINTS TO THE BIRD
MIGRATION AS A LESSON FOR MAN.

Make Music as They Fly-They Know
Their Times, They Fly in Season, but
Man Is Less Wise.
BROOKLYN, Oct 30.-The fiutter OF
bright colored leaves which every wind
blows from the trees in the avenues
around the Tabernacle reminded the
thousands who entered it's doors this
morning that winter is approaching.
DR.. Talmage, with his usual tact, turned
the impression to account in his sermon.
which was on the text, jeremiah viii, 7,
"The stork in the heaven knoweth her
appointed times, and the turtle, and the
crane, and the swallow observe the time
of their coming; but my people know
not the Judgment of the Lord"
When God would set fast beautiful
thought, he plants it in a tree. When
he would put it afoat, he fashions it
into fish. When he would have it
glide the air, he molds it into bird
My text speaks of four birds of beauti-
full instinct-the stork, of such strong
affection that it is allowed Familiarity to
come, in Holland and Germany, and
build its nest over the doorway; the
sweet dispositioned turtledove, min
Cling in color white and black and
brown and ashen and chestnut; the
crane, with voice like the clang of a
trumpet; the swallow, swift as dart
shot out of the bow Of heaven, falling,
mounting, skimming, sailing -four birds
started by the prophet twenty-five CEN
turies ago, yet flying on through the
ages, with rousing truth under glossy
wing and in the clutch of stout claw.
/ suppose it may have been this very
season of the year-autumn-and the
prophet out of doors, thinking of the
impenitence of the people of his day,
hears great cry overhead.
Now you know it is no easy thing for
one with ordinary delicacy of eyesight
to look into the deep blue of the noon
day heaven; but the prophet looks up,
and there are fiocks of storks and turtle
doves and cranes and swallows drawn
out in long lines for flight southwark
AS is their habit, the cranes had ar
ranged themselves into two lines MAX
ing an angle, wedge splitting the all
with wild velocity, the old crane, with
commanding call, bidding them onward
while the towns, and the cities, and the
continents slid under them. The prophet,
almost blinded from looking into the
dazzling heavens, stoops down and be-
gins to think how much superior the
birds are in sagacity about their safety
than men about theirs, and he puts his
hand upon the pen and begins to write,
"The stork in the heaven knoweth hel
appointed times, and the turtle, and the
crane, and the swallow observe the time
of their coming; but my people know
not the judgment of the Lord"
THE LORDS MARCHING ORDERS.
If you were in the field today, in the
clump of trees at the corner of the field
you would see a convention of birds.
noisy as the American congress the last
night before adjournment, or as the
English parliament when some unfor-
tunate member proposes more economy
In the queens households convention
of birds all talking at once, moving and
passing resolutions on the subject of
migration; some proposing to go to-
morrow, some moving that they go to-
day, some moving that they go to Bra
zil, some to Florida, some to the table |
lands of Mexico, but all unanimous in
the fact that they must go soon, for
they have marching orders from the
Lord, written on the first white sheet |
of the frost and in the pictorial of the
changing leaves.
There is not belted kingfsher, or a
chaffinch, or a fire crested wren, or a
plover, or a red legged partridge but |
expects to spend the winter at the south.
for the apartments have already been |
ordered for them in South America or
in Africa, and after thousands of miles
of flight they will stop in the very tree
where they spent last January. Fare
well, bright plumage! Until spring
weather, away! Fly on, great band of
heavenly musicians! Strew the CONT
nents with music, and whether from
northern fields, or Carolina swamps, or
Brazilian groves men see your wings or
hear your voice, may they bethink them
selves of the solemn words of the text,
"The stork in the heaven knoweth her
times, and the turtle, and the
crane, and the swallow observe the time
of their coming; but my people know
not the judgment of the Lord"
propose, so far as God may help me,
this morning, carrying out the idea of
the text, to show that the birds of the
air have more sagacity than men. And
/ begin by particularizing and saying
that they mingle music with their work.
The most serious undertaking of birds
life is this annual travel from the Hud-
son to the Amazon, from the Thames to
the Nile. Naturalists tell us that they
arrive there thin and weary and plum
age ruffied. and yet they 90 singing all
the way; the ground, the lower line of
the music, to sky the upper line of the
music; themselves, the notes scattered
up and down between.
Isuppose their song gives elasticity TO
their wing and helps on with the jour
!, I