Milford chronicle., 1893-06-30
or GO or 20 years OF age will give us a mighty
boost over some rough place in the path Of
our pilgrimage.

THE CApIlNES SONG.
Many years ago a group of white childreI
were captured and carried off by the In
! dians. Years after mother who had los
two children in That capture went among
the Indians, and there were many whit,
children in line, but so long a time haC
passed the mother could not tell whicl
were hers until she began to sing the old
nursery song, and her two children imme
diately rushed up, shouting, Mamma
Mamma" Yes, there is an immortality il
a nursery song. Hear il, all the mothers
an immortality of power to rescue and save
What an occasion that must have beer
in Washington Dec, II, 1850, when Jenny
Lind sang Home, Sweet Home, the au-
thor of those words, John Howard Payne
seated before hcr She had rendered her
other favorite songs, "Casta Diva and heI
Flute Song" with fine effect, but when
she struck Home, Sweet Home" John
Howard Payne rose under the power, and
President Fillmore and Henry Clay and
Daniel Webster and the whole audience
rose with him. Anything connected with
home ransacKs our entire nature with a
holy power, and songs that get well started
in the nursery or by the family hearth roll
on after the lips that sung them are forever
silent and the ears that first heard them
forever cease to hear.
l preach this sermon Just before many
of you will go out to pass days or weeks in
the country. BE careful how you treat the
birds. Remember they are Gods favorites,
and if you offend them you offend him.
He is so fond of their voices that there are
forests where for a hundred miles no hui
man foot has ever trod and no human ear
has ever listened. Those interminable for
ests are concert halls with only one audi
tOr-the Lord God Almighty. He builded
those auditoriums of leaves and sky and
supports all that infinite minstrelsy for
himself alone BE careful how you treat
his favorite choir
In Deuteronomy he warns the people,
III bird nest chance to be before thee in
the way in any tree, or on the ground,
whether they be young ones or eggs, thou
shalt not take the dam with the young,
that it may be well with thee, and that
thou mayest prolOug thy days So you see
/ your own longevity is related to your treat
ment of birds. Then 60 forth and attend
the minstrelsy. Put off startling colors,
which frighten the winged songsters into
silence or flight and put on your more so
ber attire and move noiselessly into the
woods, farther and farther from the main
road, and have no conversation. for many
NOAAINAb IA tAAAA NAAp VI AtN9 HAS heIAl AAlle4A
by persistent takers, and then sit down on
a mossy bank
Where a wild stream with headlOng shock
Comes brawling down "a bed Of rock.
And after perhaps a half an hour of intense
solitude there will be a tap of a beak on a
tree branch far up sounding like the tap of
a musical baton, aud then first there will
be a solo, followed by duet or quartet
and afterward by doxologies mall the tree
tops and amid all the branches, and if you
have a Bible along with you, and you can
without rustlng the leaves turn to the one
hundred and fOrty-eighth Psalm of David
and read, Praise the Lord, beasts and all
cattle, creeping things and flying fowl"
and then turn over quietly to my text and
read, by them shall the fowls of the
heaven have their habitation, which sing
among the branches or if under the
power of the bird voices you are trans
ported, as when DIR. Morgan played so
powerfully on the organ mt ST. Johns that
Richard Cecil said lie was in such blessed
bewildermenth he could not find in his Bible
the first chapter of Isaiah, though he leafed
the book over and over, and you shall beso
overcome with forest harmony that you
cannot find the Psalms of David Never
mind, for God will speak to you so might |
lily it will make no difference whether you /
hear his voice from the printed page or the I.
vibrating throat of one of his plumed crea-
lures.
GODS FIRST TEMPLES
While this summer more than usual out (
of doors let us have what my text suggests .
an out of doors religion. What business /
had David, with all the advantages Of n .
costly religious service and smoking in
cense on the altar, to be listening to the
chantresses among the tree banches2 All,
he wanted to make himself and all who
should come after him more alert and more
worshipful amid the sweet sounds and
beautiful sights of the natural world
There is an old church that needs to be re
dedicated. 1t is older than ST. Paul's or
st. Peters or St. Mark S or St. Sophia's or
St Isaac's 1t is the cathedral of nature
That is the church in which the services Of
the millennium will be held. The build
ings fashioned out of stone and brick and
mortar will not hold the people.
Again the Mount of Olives will be the
pulpit. Again the Jordan will be the bap-
tistry. Again the mountains will be the
galleries. Again the skies will be the blue
ceiling, Again the sunrise will be the
front door and the sunset the back door of
that temple. Again the clouds will be the
upholstery and the morning mist the III
cense. Again the trees will be the organ
loft where the fowls of heaven have their
habitation which sing among the branch ,
es. b" Saint Francis d'Assisi preached
sermon to birds and pronounced benedic- ,
ton upon them, but all birds preach to us, ,
and their benediction is almost supernaL
While this summer amid the works of I
God let us learn responsiveness. Surely If ,
we cannot sing we can hum tune, and if I
we cannot hum tune we can whistle. If s
we cannot be an oriole, we can be a quail. !
In some way let us demonstrate our graft !
Jude to God. Let us not be beaten by {
-he chimney swallow and the humming
bird and the brown thrasher, Let us try
10 set everything in our life to music, and
T we cannot give the carol of the song /
parrOw take the plant of the hermit
hrush. Let our life be an anthem of wor- !
IMP to the God who created us and the I
Christ who ransomed us and the Holy
Ghost who sanctifes us. And our last 9
ong-may it be our best songl The swan !
vas thought by the ancients never to sing |
Xeept when dying.
In the time of Edward " no one was al
owed to own a swan except he were Z
,ing's son or had considerable estate, !
Through one or two hundred years Of life
tAttb BlLAl was atAA AENNA ~ AAANA eAA sAAAAisa
ike music until its last moment came, and I
hen lifting its crested beauty it would 2
,our forth song of almost matchless
brill, resounding through the groves. And :
o, although the struggles of life may be !
90 much for us, and we may find it hard Il
o sing at all when the last hour comes to u
ou and me, may there be a radiance from
bove and Il glory settling round that shall y
nable us to utter 4 song on the wings OF u
which we shall mount to where the music II
ever ceases and the raptures never die.
What is that, mother?" "The swan, my love; =
Ie is floating down from his native grove. y
70 loved one, no nesting nigh d
Ie is floating down by himself to die. W
)eath darkens his eye and unplumes his wings,
-et the sweetest song is the last he sings. a.
ave So my child, that when aestI snGl come al
"ahiiAe anu sweel' II may w'lll 'i'eo iio'iie d
The first iron wire was drawn at Nurem- =