The Opelousas courier., 1893-04-01
REV. DR.. TALMAGL
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.

TEXT: "Behold the fouls of the oiym-
Matthew vi, 26.
There is silence now in all our Jannarv
forests, except as the winds whistrg thronoh
the bare branches. Our northern woods
are deserted concert halls. The organ lofts
In the temple of nature are hymnless. Traas
which were full of carol and chirp and chant
are now waiting for the coming back of
rich plumes and warbling voices solos
duets, quartetes, c~antatas and TIE Deums
But the Bible is full of birds at all seasons
and prophets and patriots and apostles. and
Christ Himself employ them for moral and
religious PURPOSES. Ny text is an extract
from the sermon on the mount. and perhans
1t was at a moment when a flock of birds
few past that ChrisA waved His hand toward
them and said, "Behold the fowls of the airE
And so in this course of ermon on God
everywhere preach to you this third SER
mon concerning the O~rnithology of the
Bible: or, God Among the Birds.
Most of the other sciences you NAV study
or not study as you please. Use your own
Judgment, exercise your own taste, But
about this science of ornithology we have
no option. The Irvine command is p~ositive
when it says in my text, Behold the fowls
of the air" That is, study their habits,
Examine their eolors. Notice their Cnead
See the hand of Col in their construction
IL is easy for me to obey the command of
the text, for l was brought I'D among the
race OF wings and from boyhood heard their
mathis at sunrise and their vespers at sun
set.
Their nests have been to me a fascination.
and my satisfaction is that I never robbed
one OF them any more than I would steal q
child from a cradle, for a bird is a child Of
the sky. and It's nest is the cradle, Thew are
almost human, tor they have their loves and
hates, a%ttinities and antipathies. understand
JOY and grief, have conjugal and maternal
instinct wage wars and entertain iealousies.
have a language of their own and mowers ri
association. Thank God for birds and skies
full of them! 1t is useless to expect to un-
derstand the Bible unless we study natural
history.
Five hundred and ninety-three times does
the Bible allude to the facts OF natural his.
tory, and do not wender that it makes 50
many illusions pathological. The skies
and the cavernS of Palestine are friendly tn
the winged creatures, and SO many fly and
Toost and nest and hatch In that region that
inspired writers do not have far to go to get
pathological illustration Of divine truth.
There are over forty species of birds recog-
nized in the Scriptures.
Oh, what a variety of wings in Palestinei
The dove, the robin, the eagle, the cormo-
rant or piunging bird, hurting itself from
sky to wave and with long beak clutching
its prey; the thrush, which especially dis,
likes a crowd; the parGridges; the hawk,
bold and ruthless, lowering head to wind
ward while watching for prey; the swan, at
home among the marshes and with feet so
constructed itcan walk on the leaves of wa
ter plants; the raven, the %lapwing, malodor,
GUS and in the Bible denounced as inedible,
though it has extraordinary headdress;
the stork; the ossifrage, that always
had a habit of dropping on a stone the turtle
it had lifted and so killing it for food, and
on one occasion mistook the bald head of
Aschylus, the Greek poet, for a white stone,
and dropped a turtle upon it, killing the
famous Greek; the cuckoo, with crested
head and crimson throat and wings snow
tipped, but too lazy to build its own nest,
and so having the habit of depositing its
eggs in nests belonging to other birds; the
bluejay, the grouse. the piover, the magpie,
the kingfsher, the pelican, which is the Carl
cature Of all the feathered creation; the owl,
the %goldfinch, the bittern, the barrier, the
bulbul, the osprey; the v~ulture, that king of
scavengers, with neck covered with repulsive
down instead Of attractive feathers; thesquar-
Teisome startling; the swallow, flying a milea
minute and sometimes ten hours in success
sion; the heron, the quail, the peacock, the os-
trich, the lark, the crow, the kite, the bat,
the hlackbird and many Others, with all
co'ors, all sounds, all styles of flight, all
habits, all architecture of nests, leaving
nothing wanting in suggestiveness. They
were at the creation placed all around on
the rocks and in the trees aud on the ground
to serenade Adams arrival. They took
their places on Friday, as the first man was
made on Saturday. Whatever else he had
or did not have, he should have music. The
first sound that struck the human ear was a
birds voice.
Yea, Christian ~geology-for you know
there is a Christian geology as well as an IN
Hdel geology-Christian geology comes in
and helps the Bible show what we owe to
the bird creation. Before the human race
came into this world the world was occupied
by reptiles and by all sorts Of destructive
monsters-millions of creatures, loathsome
and hideous. God sent huge birds to clear
the earth of these creatures before Adam
and Eve were created. The remains Of these
birds have been found imbedded in the
rocks. The skeleton of one eagle has been
found twenty feet in height and fifty feet
from tip of wing to tip OF wing. Many ar
mics of beaks and claws were necessary to
clear the earth of creatures that would have
destroyed the human race with one clip. l
like to find this harmony of revelation and
science, and to have demonstrated that the
God who made the world made the Bible.
Moses. the greatest lawyer OF all time ana
great man for facts, had enough sentl-
ment ana poetry anu musical tasue w We
come the illuminated wings and the voices
divinely drilled into the first chapter OF
Genises. How should Noah, the old SHIP
carpenter, 900 years of age, find u wnen
the world was fit again for m residence
after the universal freshet? A blrd VIII
tell, and nothing else can. NO man eau
come down from the mountain TO lnVlbe
Noah and his family out to terra hrmas. ior
the mountains were submerged. as q pEa
first heralded the human race INTO 1ne
world, now a bird will help the m race
back to the world that had shipped O sea
that whelmed everything.
Noah stands on Sunday morning al tne
window of the ark, in his hand q coolng
dove. so gentle, SO innocent, so atfectionate'
and he said: "Now, my little dove, ny away
over these waters, EXPLORE and come Dack
and tell us whether it is safe to land." After
q long flight it returne hungry and weary
and wet. and by its looks and manners SAID
to Noah and his family; THE world is NOT
AZ for you to d~isembark." Noah waited a
week. nj next Sunday morning ne let tne
dove hy again for a second exploration, ano
Sunday evening it came back WIN q leal
that had the sign of just having Oeen
plucked from a living fruit tree, anu ~
hird reported the world would do tolerapay
ven For q bird to live in, but not yet SUM
cientiy recovered for human residence.
Noah waited another week, ana next oun-
day morning he sent out the dove on Cle
third exploration, but it returned NOT Ior -
found the world 80 attractive now IL dtu noe.
want to be Gagged again, theh zig
smiprants from the a~ntediluvlan World
landed. It was a bird that told them Wnen
% take possession OF the resuscitated planet.
80 the human race were saved by a birds
wing, for, attempting to land too soon, they
would have persisted.