The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-11-01
THE WARNING TO FLY
DR.. TALMAGE POINTS TO THE BIRD
MIGRATION AS A LESSON FOR MA7a

Make Music They Tly-They Know
Their Times. They lily in Season asut
Man Is Less Wise.
BROOKLYN. Oct G0.-The futter of
bright coIored leaves which every wind
blows from the trees IL the avenues
around the Tabernacle reminded the
thousands who entered its doors this
morning that winter Is approaching.
Dr. Talmage, with ms usual tact, turned
the impression to account IL his sermon,
which was on the text, jeremiah viii, z,
1.-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 tAe Lord"
When God would set fast beautiful
thought, he plants Ii in a tree. When
he would put it afo%t, ne fashions it
into a fish When ne wonld have it
glide the air. he molGs 1t into a bird.
Ny text speaks of four birds of beauti-
full instinct-the storIs. of such strong
affection that it is allowed famihaTly to
come, in Holland and Germany, and
build its nest over the doorway the
sweet dispositioned turtIrdove, min
brown and ashen and chestnut: the
crane, with voice ike the clang of Il
trumpet: the swallow, swift as u dart
shot out Of the bow Of heaven, falling.
mounting. skimming, sailing-four birds
started by the prophet twenty-five cen
turtles ago, yet flying ON through the
ages, with rousing truth under glossy
wing and in the clutch of stout claw
l 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 a 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 fight southwark.
AS is their habit, the cranes had az
ranged themselves into two lines max
ing an angle, wedge splitting the al:
with wild velocity, the old crane, wit.
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
udZZllnS heavens, SIOOIS uO"u anu DS-
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.
1.-The stork III the heaven knoweth hel
= appointed times, and the turtle, and the
crane, and the swallow observe the tine
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 Il 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
I'll, 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 shee.
of the frost and in the pictorial of the
changing leaves.
There is not Il belted kingfsher. or a
chaffinch. or a fire crested wren, or a
plover pr red legged partridge bat
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 fight they will stop in the very tree
where they spent last January. Fare
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 OF
hear your voice, may they bethink them
selves of the solemn words of the text
"The stork in the heaven knoweth hel
appointed times, and the turtle, and the
crane, ard 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
l 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 tc
the Nile Naturalists tell us that they
arrive there thin and weary and plum
age rufI!ed. and yet they go singing al
the way; the ground, the lower line OF
the music, the sky, the upper line of the
music: themselves, the notes scattered
MP and down between.
suppose their song gives elasticity t.
their wing and helps on with the jour
ney, dwindling thousand miles into foul
hundred. Would TO God that we were
as wise as they in mingling Christian
song with our everyday work! believe
there is such a thing as taking the pitcl
of Christian devotion in the morning and
keeping it all the day. think we nigh
take some of the dullest, heaviest, mos
disagreeable work of our life and set i