The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-11-11
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Lessons from the Southwark Flight
OF the Birds.
The Power or Christian Song-God's Peo-
pie should Fly Higher, and. Like the
Birds, Know When 10 Start
The Frosts OF Sin.

Rev. It. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following discourse in the Brooklyn
tabernacle from the text:
The stork i'm the heavens knoweth her ap-
pointed time; and the turtle and the crane
and the swallow observe the time Of their
coming; but Nv people know not the judgment
Of the Lord.-Jsremiah viii, T.
When God would set fast beautiful
thought, He plants it in tree. When
He would put it afoat. He fashions 1t
into fish. When He would have it
glide in the air, He molds it into a bird
Ny text speaks of four birds of beauti-
full instinct-the storl1. OF such strong
affection that IL is allowed Familiarity
ia come, in Holland and Germany, and
build its nest over the doorway; the
B~eet-dispositioned turtle-dovc, ming
lag i'm color white, and black, and
brown, and ashen, and chestnut; the
crane, with voice like the clang of
trumpet; the swallow, swift as dart
shot out of the bow of Heaven, falling,
mounting, Swimming. sailing = four
birds started by the prophet twenty
five centuries ago, yet flying on through
the ages, with rousing truth under
glossy wing and in the clutch of stout
claw. i suppose it may have been this
very season of the year-autumn-a
the prophet out-of-doors, thinking of
the impenitence of the people of his
day, hears great cry overhead.
Now, you know il is no easy thing
for one with ordinary delicacy of eye
sight to look into the deep blue of the
MONDAY heaven; but the prophet
looks up, and there are fiocks of
storlSs, and turtle-doves, and cranes,
and swallows, drawn ont in long lines
for fight southwark. As is their
habit, the crimes had arranged them
selves into two lines, making an angle,
a wedge splitting the air with wild We
locity, the old crane, with command
ing call, bidding them onward, while
the towns and the cities and the conti-
nents slide 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 sagncity about their safety
than men about theirs; and he puts
his hand upon the pen, and begins to
write: "The stork in the heaven know
eth her appointed times and the turtle
and the crane and the swallow observe
the time of their coming; but my peo-
pie know not the Judgment of the
Lord"
If you were in the field to-day, in the
clump of trees at the corner of the
field, you would see convention of
birds noisy as the American congress
the last night before adjournment, or
as the English parliament when some
unfortunate member proposes moro
economy in the queens households
convention of birds all talking at once,
moving and passing resolutions on
the subject of migration; some pro-
posing to go tomorrow, some NOV
ing that they go to-day, some NOV
ing that they go to- Brazil, 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, writ
ten on the first white sheet of frost,
and in the pictorial of the changing
leaves There is not belted king
fisher, or a chafinch, or fire-crested
wren, or plover, or a red-legged part
ridge, 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 thou
sands of miles of fight they will stop
in the very tree where they spent last
January. Farewell, bright plumagel
Until spring weather, away Fly on,
great band of heavenly musicians!
Strew the continents with music, and
whether from northern fields, or Caro-
linian swamps, or Brazilian groves,
men see your wings, or hear your
voice, may they bethink themselves of
the solemn words of the text '"The
stork in the heaven knoweth her APP
pointed time, 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
mir have more sagacity than men. And
begin by particularizing and saying
that they mingle music with their
work. The most serious undertaking
Of a birds life is this annual travel
from the Hudson to the Amazon, from
the Thames to the Nile. Naturalists
tell us that they arrive there thin and
weary, and plumage ruth ed, and yet
they go singing all the way; the ground,
the lower line of the music, the sky,
the upper line of the music; themselves.
the notes scattered up and down be-
tween. suppose their song gives elias
ITCHY to their wing, and helps on with
the journey, dwindling one thousand
miles TO four hundred. Would God
that we were as wise as they in min
Cling Christian song with our everyday
work, believe there is such thing
a taking the pitch of Christian devotion
in the morning and keeping it all the
day. think we might take some of
the dullest, heaviest, most disagreeable
work of our life and set it to the tune
of Antioch or Mount Pisgah.''
IL is N good sign when you hear n
workman whistle. 1t is better sign
when you hear him hum a roundelay.
IL is still better sign when you hear
him sing the words of Isaac Watts or
Charles Wesley. A violin chorded and
strung, if something accidentally
strikes il, makes music, and suppose
there is such a thing rs having our
hearts so attuned by Divine grace that
even the rough collisions of life viii
make a heavenly vibration. / do not
believe that the power of Christian
song has yet been fully tried ] be-
lieve that if you could roll the 'tOld
Hundred" doxology through Wall