The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1893-01-13

has not yet failed often enough to be
come wealthy. No one pretends to &C
count for his princely wardrobe, or thu
chased silver, or the full curbed steed'
that rear and neigh like Bucephalus il
the grasp OF his coachman. Did he come
to sudden Inheritance No Did ht
make a fortune on purchase and sale
No Everybody asks where did that par
fridge hatch. The devil suddenly threw
him up. and the devil will suddenly lei
Linn come down. That hidden scheme
God saw from the first conception of the
plot. That partridge, swift disaster viii
shoot it down. and the higher it flies the
harder it falls. The prophet saw. as you
and have often seen. the awful mistake
of cartridges.
But from the top of Bible fir tree
hear the shrill cry of the stork. job
Ezekiel. jeremiah, speak of it. David
cries out. AS for the stork. the fir tree
is her house" This large white Bile
bird is supposed without alighting some
times to wing its way from the region Of
the Rhine to Africa. AS winter comes
the last one of their number that arrives
at the spot TO which they migrate is
killed by them. What havoc it would
make in our species if those men were
killed who are always behind In orien-
tai cities the stork is domesticated and
walks about on the street and will follow
its keeper.
In the city of Ephesus | saw long
row of pillars, on the top of each pillar
storks nest. But the word "stork'
ordinarily means mercy and affection
from the fact that this bird was distin-
guished for its great love for its parents.
1t never forsakes them, and even after
they become feeble protects and provides
for them. In migrating the old stor..s
lean their necks ON the young storl7s,
and when the old ones give out the
young ones carry them on their backs.
God forbid that a dumb stork should
have more heart than we. Blessed is
that table at which an old father and
mother sit; blessed that altar at which
an old father and mother kneel!
What it is to have a mother they know
best who have lost her. God only knows
the agony she suffered for us. the times
she wept over our cradle and the anxious
signs her bosom heaved as we lay uron
it, the sick nights when she watched Us
long after every one was tired out but
God and herself. Her lifeblool beats
in our heart. and her image lives in oul
face. That man is graceless as a canri-
bal who i'll treats his parents. and h.
who begrCdges them daily bread and
clothes them but shabbily. may God
have patience with him: I cannot. !
heard man once say Il now have my
old mother on my hands" Ye stor4s
on your way with food to your aged
parents, shame him!
THE PROSECUTED CHURCH.
But yonder in this Bible sky flies a
bird that is speckled. The prophet &c
the church cries out. Mine
heritage is unto me as a speckled bird;
the birds round about are against her.
So it was then; so it is now. Holiness
picked at. Conservation picked at. Be-
nevolence picked at. usefulness picked
At. A speckled bird is i peculiar bird
and that arouses the antipathy of all the
beaks of the forest.
The church of God is peculiar insti-
tuition, and that is enough to evoke at
Jack of the world, for it is q speckled
bird to be picked at. The inconsistent
lies of Christians are banquet on which
nultitudes get fat. They ascribe every
hing you do to wrong motives. Put a
lollar in the poor box and they will say
hat you dropped it there only that you
night hear it ring. Invite them to
Christ, and they will call you fanatic.
Let there be contention among Chris
ians, and they will say: ''Hurrah! The
hurch is in decadence.
Christ intended that his church should
.lways remain speckled bird. Let
'irds of another feather pick at her, but
hey cannot rob her of a single plume.
ike the albatross, she can sleep on the
'osom of tempest. She has gone
trough the fires of Nebuchadnezzar
urnace and not got burned through the
waters of the Red sea and not been
through the shipwreck on the
reakers of Melita and not been foun-
cred. Let all earth and hell try to hunt
own this speckled bird, but far above
uman scorn and Internal assault it shall
ing over every mountain top and fly
yer every nation, and her triumphant
ong shall be: THE church of God!
he pillar and ground Of the truth.
he gates of hell shall not prevail against
err"
But we cannot stop here. From
ali cliff hanging over the sea hear the
agile calling unto the tempest and lift
lg its wing to smite the whirlwind {
loses. jeremiah, Hosea and Habakkuk
t times in their writings take their pen
rom the eagles wing. 1t is bird with
erceness in its eye, its feet armed with ,
laws of iron and its head with dread ;
al beak. Two or three of them can fill
he heavens with clangor But gener-
lly this monster of ne air is alone and {
for the reason that its
abits are so predaceous it requires five
r ten miles of aerial or earthly domin- '
N all for itself. {
The black brown of its back, and the {
'hite of its lower feathers. and the fire '