The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-01-13

sho wept over our cradle and the anxious
signs her bosom heaved M we lay u,on
Il, the sick nights when she watched us
long aftof every one was tircl out b,,,
uod and herself, Her likelihood beats
b, bur hnafr, and her image lives IN our
freeI That man Ii graceless ns u canni
bal who III tten;s his parents. AMI l.
who bcgrndges them daily brcad aad
clothes them but stability may tol
have patience with him; cannot |
heard man once say, II now have my
old mother on my hands" Ye storks
on your way with food to your aged
parents. shame him.
rHE PROSECUTED CHURCH.
But yonder in this Bible sky flies a
bird that in speckled. The prophet de-
scribing the church cries out. "Mire
heritage is unto me as specklel bird;
the birds round about are against her. :"
SO 1t was theni no 1t is now. Holiness
picked ut. Conservation picked at. Be-
hevolence picked at. Usefulness picked
at. A specklod bird is a peculiar bird;
and that arouses the antipathy of all the
beaks of the forest.
Tho church Of God is peculiar insti-
tuition, and that is enough to evoke at
tack of the world. for it is a specklod
bird to be picked at. The inconsistent
ties of Christians are banquet on which
inulttudes get fat: They ascribe every
thing you do to wrong motives. Put a
dollar Ia the poor box and they will say
that you dropped 1t there only that you
might hear it ring. Invite them tc
Christ, and they will call you fanatic.
Let there be contention among Chris.
tians, and they will say: "Hurrahl The
church is In decadence."
Christ intended that his church should
always remain a specified bird. Let
birds Of another feather pick at her, but
they cannot rob her of a single plume.
Like the albatross, she can sleep on the
bosom Of tempest. She has gone
through the fires of Nebuchadnezzar's
furnace and not got burned; through the
waters of the Red sea and not been
drowned; through the shipwreck on the
breakers of Melita and not been foun-
dered. Let all earth and hell try to hunt
down this speckled bird, but far above
human scoin and Internal assault it shall
sing over every mountain top and Fly
over every nation, and her triumphant
song shall be: 1.-THE church Of God.
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 lift
ing its wing to slnite the wbirlwiDd
Moses. jeremiah, Hosea and Habakk,.k
at times in their writings take their pen
from the eagles wing. It is bird with
ferceness In its eye, Its feet armed with
claws of iron and its head with dread
full beak. Two OF three of them can fill
the heavens with elangor. But gener-
ally this monster of the air Is alone and
unaccompanied, fer the reason that its
habits are 30 predaceous 1t requires Eve
or ten miles Of aerial or earthly domin-
ion all for itself
The black brown of its back, and the
white of its lower feathers, and the FIRE
of its eye, and the long flap of it's wing
make one glimpse of it as it swings
down into tho valley to pick up rabbit,
or a lamb, OF child and then swings
back to its throne on the rock some
thing never to be forgotten. Scattered
about its eyrie of altituhinous solitude
are the bones Of its donquests. 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
II. las an eagle stirreth up her nest.
huttereth over her Young, spreading
abroad her wings, taheth them, beart i,
them on her wings, so the Lord alono
did lead"
WISDOM OF THE EAGLE.
The old eagle first shoves the youas
one out Of the nest in order to make it
fly, and then takes it on hen back ard
flies with it and shakes it off In the air.
ana If it seems like falling quickly flies
under 1t and takes 1t on her wing again.
30 God does with us. Disaster, failure
In business, disappointment, bereave-
ment, is only Gods way Of shaking US
out Of our comfortable nest in order
that we may learn how to fly. You who
are complaining that you have no faith
or courage Of Christian zeal have lad 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
lhaken off, and when we werc a,,o It 10
fall he came under lis again and Iron II
us ont Of the gloomy valley to the sun
ny mountain. Never an eagle brooGed
with such love and care over her young
as Gods wings have been over us.
Across what oceans Of trouble we have
gone in safety upon the Almighty " lgs,
From what mountains of sin we have
been carried and at times have bee,
borne up far above the gunshot Of the
world and the arrow of the devil!
When our time on earth is closed on
these great wings of God we shall speed
with infinite quickness from earth's
mountains to heavens hills, and us from
the eagles circuit under the sun men OF
the ground seem small and insignificant
as lizards on a rock, 80 all earthly things
shall dwindle into speck, and the rag
ing river of death so far beneath viii
seem smooth and CLASSY as Swiss lake
twas thought in ancient times that an
eagle could not only mott its feathers il,
old age, but that after arriving to ereai
age it would renew its strength and he
come entirely young again. To this
Isaiah alludes when he says: They thai
wait on the Lord shall renew the,
strength. They shall mount NJ VII.
wings Of eagles" Even so the Clristi;;:
In old age will renew his spiritu'.
strength. He shall be young in arf.a
and enthusiasm for Christ assd ~ I'll,
body fails the soul will grow in elastici; !,
till at death it will spring up like D t.lal
dened child into the bosom Of God.
Yea, in this pathological stacy e.
that Job says, His days fly az ao caa
that hasteth to Its prey" The s.ecl G