Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-06-29

claimed reverently. ION GOD! and an
other sobbed out, "Oh Christ"
Further, l remark in regard to the
song of birds, that il is trustful, and
without any fear of what may yet
come. win you tell me how it is pos
sible for that wren, that sparrow, that
chickadee, to sing so sweetly when
they may any time be bounced on by
"a hawk and torn wing from wing?
There are cruel beaks in thicket and
in sky ready TO Stay the song birds.
IIerods on the wing. Modocs of the
sky. Assassins armed with iron claw.
Murderers of song floating MP and
down the heavens. How can the
birds sing amid such perils? Beside
that how is the bird sure to get its
food? Millions of birds have been
starved. Yet it sings in the dawn
without any certa nty of breakfast or
dinner or supper. Would it not be
better to gather its food for the day
before vocalizing? beside that, the
hunters are abroad Bang. goes gun
in one direction. Bang! goes gun in
another direction. The song will at
tract the shot and add to the peril.
Beside that, yonder is thunder cloud
and there may be hurricane and hail
TO be let loose, and what will then be-
come of you. the poor warbler? Be
side that, winter will come, and it
may be smitten down before il gets to
the tropics Have you never seen the
snow strewn with the birds belated in
their migration? The titmouse min
giles its voice with the snow storms as
Emerson describes the little thing
he found in tempcstuous January:
Here was this atom in full breath
Hurling defiance at vast death;
This scrap of valor just for play
Fronts the north wind in waistcoat gray.
For every bird, a thousand perils and
disasters lowering and sweeping round
and round Yet, there it sings, and it
is Il trustful song. The bird that has
it the hardest, sings the sweetest. The
lark from the shape of her claws may
not perch on tree. In the grass her
nest is EXPOSED to every hoof that
passes. One of the poorest shelters of
all the earth is the lark's nest. If she
sing at all. you will expect her to rem
der the saddest of threnodIes. No, no.
She sings eXultingly an hour without
a pause and mounting three thousand
feet without losing Il note. Would
God we all might learn the lesson.
W
ments, Whatever trials are yet to come,
sing, sing with all your heart and sing
with all your lungs. If you wait until
all the hawks of trouble have folded
their wings and all the hunters of hate
have unloaded their guns and all the
hurricanes of disaster have spent their
fury, YOU will never sing at all. David
the pursued of Absalom, and the be-
l. II M 1At Cd
OF sores that ran in the night" pre-
sents us the best songs of the Bible.
John Milton, not able to see his hand
before his face, sings for us the most
famous poem of all literature, and
some of the most cheerful people l have
ever met have been Christian people
under physical, or domestic, or public
torment. The songs of Charles Yves
ley which we now calmly sing in
church. were composed by him be-
tween mobs.
Further, in the Sky galleries, there
are songs adapted to all moods. Tho
meadow lark is mournful, and the gold
finch JOYOUS, and the grosbeak pro.
longed of note. But the libretto Of
nature is vOluminous. Are you sad;
you can hear from the bowers the echo
OF you" grief Arc yol glad; you can
hear an echo Of lOar happiness. Are
You thoughtful; You can hear that
which viii plunge you into deeper
profound. Are YOU weary; you may
catch a rcstful air. so the songs Of
birds are administrative in all circum-
stances. And we would do well to
have hymnology for all changes of
condition. Nou may sing your woes
into peace and rouse your joys into
greater attitudes. Upon every condi-
ton of body and soul, let us try the
power of song. The multitudinOus
utteranCcs of grove and orchard and
garden and forest suggest most de-
lightfUl possibilities.
Further | notice that thn song of
birds is a family song. Even those OF
the fcathcrcd throog which have no
song ut all. make what uttc.ance they
do in sounds of their own family OF
BIRDS. The boot of the owl, the clat-
ter of the magpie. the crow of the
chauticlcer, the drumming OF the
grouse. the laugh OF the loon in the
Adiroudacks, the cacillc of the hen. the
scream of the eagle, the CrOak of the
raven, are sounds belonging TO each
particular family; but when YOU come
10 those which have real songs, how
suggestive that it is always family
song. All the slylarils, all the night
ingalrs, all the goldfnchcs, all the
black birds, all the cdckOOs, prefer the
ong OF their Own family and never
sing anything else. So the most inn
pressivc- songs we ever sing are family
songs, They have come down from
, generation TO generation. Nou were
sung to sleep in Your infancy and
childhood by songs that will sing in
YOUR soul forever. Where was it, my
. brother or sister, that You heard the
family sOng-On the bank of the Ohio.
or the Ala bama, CT the AndrosCoggin,
or the Connecticut, or the Tweed cr
the Thames, or the Rar'itan? That
song at eventide, when GU were tired
( out-indecd too tired too sleep, and
Won cried with leg ache, and
/ YOU we're rocked and sung 10
slecp-you hear it now, tho soft voice
/ from sweet lips, she as tired, perhaps
more tired than you, hut She rocked
and YOU slumbered. o. those family
+ songs. The songs that father sang,
/ that mother sang, that sisters and
, br theirs sang. They roll on Us to day
with remn 'scencc that fills the
! throat, as wei as inc Neult with
emotion. In our house in my child,
/ hood it was always religious song.
/ do not think that the old folks knew
/ anything but religious songs; at any
/ rate, ! never heard them sing anything
else. 1t was Jesus, loscr Of my soul, =
or Rock of ages, or There is 4
founta filed with blood" or MARY
to the Saviour's tomb" Mothers, be
careful. what you sing your children e
sleep with. Let il be nothing frivo
lous or silly. Il It II have in il some,
thing of Christ and heaven. Better have
in it something that will help that boy
thirty years from now to bear up under
the BON ardment of temptation. Bet.
terhave in it something that win heln
that daughter thirty years from nov
when upon her come the cares oil
motherhood and the agOnies of b.
reavement and the brutal treatment
Of one who swOrc before high
heaven that he would cherish
and prot ct. DO not waste the
best hour for making an i'm
preston upon your Little one, the hour
4 i