Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-01-12

self Her likelihood beats in our heart and
| her image lives in our face. That man is
| graoolcss rs a cannibHl who i'll treats his par
ents, and he who begrudges thon daily
bread and clothes them but sha5bily-mRy
| God have patience with him; | cannot l
heard a man once say, ~ now have my old
mother on my Lands" Ye storks on your
way with food to your aged parents, shame
| himi
THE ToRMENTED BIRD.
But yonder in this Bible sky flies bird
that is speckled. The prophet describin { the
church cries out, Mine heritage is unto me
as Il speCkled bird; the birds round about are
against her" SO it was then; 80 it is now.
Holiness picked at. Conservation picked
At. Benevolence picked at. Usefulness
picked at. A speclled bird is n peculiar
bird, and that arouses the antipathy of all
the beaks of the forest The church Of God
is peculiar institution, and that is enough
to evoke attack of the world, for it is
speckled bird TO be picked ut. The incon-
sistencies OF Christians are a banquet on
which multitudes get fat They ascribe
everything you do to wrong motives. Put
dollar in the poor box, and they will say
that you dropped it there only that you
might hear it ring Invite them to Christ,
and they will call you fanatic
Let there be contention among Chris
tians, and they will say: "lIurrahl The
church is in decadence" Christ intended
that his church should always remain
speckled bird. Let birds Of another feather
pick at her, but they cannot rob her of u
single plume. Liket the albatross she can
sleep Oh the bosom of tempest. She has
gone through the fires of Nebuchadne2aar's
furnace and not got burned, through the
waters of the Red sea and not been drowned,
Melita and not been foundercd. Let all
earth and hell try to hunt down this spec
killed. bird, but far above human scorn and
Internal assault it shall sing over every
mountain top and fly over every nation, and
her triumphant song shall be: The church
of Godl The pillar and ground of the
truth The gates of hell shall not prevail
against her"
But we cannot stop here. From a tall
cliff, hanging over the sea, hear the eagle
calling unto the tempest and lifting it's
wing to smite the whirlwind. Moses, Jere-
miah, Hosea and Habakkuk ut times in
their writings take their pen from the
eagles wing. 1t is II bird with ferceness in
its eye, It's feet armed with claws of iron,
and its head with dreadful beak. Two or
three Of them can fill the heavens with
clangor But generally this monster of the
air - dIOut anu IlIltliilCtls w iilc
reason that its habits are 50 prcdaceous it
requires five or ten miles of aerial or earth
ly dominion all for itself
The black brown Of its back, and the
white of It's lower feathers and the fire of
its eye, and the long flap of its wing make
one glimpse of it "a it swings down into the
valley TO pick up a rabbit or a lamb, or a
child and then swings back to its throne on
the rock something never to be forgotten.
Scattered about its eyre of altitudinous
solitude are the bones of its conquests, But
while the beak and the claws Of the eagle
are the terror of all the travellers of the air,
the mother eagle is most kind and gentle
to her young.
God compares his treatment Of his people
to the eagles care Of the eaglets Deuter-
onomy XXxii, II, AS an eagle stirreth up
her nsst, Guttereth over her young spread
ing abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth
them on her wings, so the Lord alone did
lead" The old eagle first shoves the young
: one out of the nest in order to make it fly,
and then take it on Ler back and flies with
it, and shakes il OF in the air, and if it
seens like falling quickly flies under it and
. takes it on her wing again. SO Sod dos
with Us. Disaster, failure in business, dis
, appointments, bereavement, Is oniy Coos
, way of shaking us out of our comfortable
nests in order that we may learn how to fly
You who are complaining that you have
no faith or courage or C97fistian zeal have
, had it too easy. You never will learn to fly
IN that comfortable nest. Like an eagle
; Christ has carried us on his back. At times
We have been shaken Off, and when we were
, about to fall he came under US again and
brought US out of the gloomy valley to the
sunny mountain. Never an eagle brooded
with GI-fh Iowa mud bar a
Gods wings have been over US. Acros.
what oceans OF trouble we have gone il
safety upon the Almighty wingsl From
l what mountains of sin we Lave been carried
| and ct times have been borne up far above
5 the gunshUt of the world and the arrow o.
Z the devil!
. When GU" time on earth is closed, Or
these great wings of God we shall speed
with infinite quickuess froIa earth's noun
l tains to heavens hills, and as from the
3 eagles circuit under the sun men on the
ground seem small ana insignificant a,
lizards on a rock so all earthly things shall
, dwindle into a speck and the raging rive
: Of death SO far beneath will seem smootl
) and CLASSY IN Swiss lake
$ MOUNTING As TIE EAGLES.
1 1t was thought in ancient times that AZ
e eagle could not only mott its feathers il
! IL would renew its strength and become
5 entirely young again. TO this Isaiah al
Q ludes when he says, They that wait on thu
e Lord shall renew their strength; they shall
= mount up with wings of eagles" Even S.
? the Christian in Old age Will renew hi
e spiritual strength, He shall 10 young il
. ardor and enthusiasm for Christ, and "a
I the body fails the soul will grow in elias
, ITCHY till at death it will spring up like
G eladdened child into the bosom of God
G Yea, in this pathological study | see tina
!, job says, His days fly as an eagle tina
hasteth to it's prey"
r The speed of II hungry eagle when it saw
!, its prey a score Of miles distant was unim
5 aginable. 1t went like a thunderbolt 70
. speed and power. So fly our days. SiXt.
minutes, each worth heaven, since we as
y sembed in this place, have Shot like light
/. Mug into eternity. The old earth is rem
+ aud cracked under the swift rush Of day
r and months and years and ages 'Swifta
l., mn ole that hpstpt a its urpV - Rpholt