Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1893-03-18
REV. DIR. TALM q
ABE BR1OhLYN rININES Sun
DAY SERNOS.

80 8'+f* ~ ftEf -
Under her rinas. and re r9uh not
Matthew xiii, 81.
Jerusalem was in sigh. as Chris: am -
the crest OF Mount Olivet, q height OF 10
ieet. The sDlendors Of the religious capital
Of the whole earth irraiia.ei the Landscape.
1rere is the temple. Yonier is the kings
palace. Spread cut before His eyes are the
coming destruction of Jerusalem, AMI He
burst into tears at the thought Of the OBJ
duracy Of a place that He would gladly have
saved. and apostrophizes. saying, "O0.
Jerusalem. jerusalem. how often would [
have gathered thy coiidren together. even
as a ben gathereth her chickens under her
wings. and ye would not
Why did Christ select hen AMI Chicken as
n sir1ilA, Next to the oppositaness Of thu
connarison ! tnink it was to help all public
teachers iii the matter Of illustration to get
down of their stills and use comparisons
that oil can understand. The piainest Dir |
on earth IS the barnyari fowl. It, only
adornments are the rel comb in its head
dress and the wattles IN Ter the throat. Il
has no grandeur ot genealoyv. All we know
IS that It's ancestors came from In lia. SOM
ri them from n height % 1000 feet on the
sides Of the Himalavs. 1t has no pretention
OF nest ike the cages eyrip. 1t has no luster
of plumace Ike the coldiincb. P0ssessinc
anatomy that allows flight. vet about the
last thing that it wants 10 DO is 10 ny. an
III retreat uses foot almost as much as wing
Nus cians have written out in musical
scale the song of lark and robin red breas.
and nightingale, yet the hen OF nv text
bath nothing thar could be taken for a song.
Int only cluck AMI cfck'e. Yet Christ In
The text %uttere1. while looking upon doomed
Jerusalem, declares that what He hal
wished for that city was like what the hen
does for her checkers. Christ was thus sim.
plein His teachings, mi vet how harl it is
for u, who are Sundav-sciIoot instructors
and editors anil preachers and reforner-
and those who would gain the ears OF audi
ences, to attain that heavenly AMI divine
art Of simplicity.
We have to run a course of literary dis
nriers as children a c0urs- Of physical dis
oriers. we come out Of school an co!!ere
loaded down with Greek mytholoyies AMI
out OF the theological seminary weiphei
down with what the learned fathers said.
ana we ny with wings Of eagles anl namin-
goes and alhatrosses, and it takes a cool
while before we can come DOWN to Christ's
simliitndes, the candle under the bushol, the
salt that has lost its SAVIOR, the net thrown
into the sea, the spitt!e on the eyes Of the
blind man and the hen ard chickens.
There is not much poetry about this
winged creature Of God mentioned in nv
text, but she is more practical and mora
motherIy and more suggestive of rood
things than many that fly higher and wear
brighter coiorS. She Is not a prima donna
Of the skies nor a strut of beauty in thu
aisle Of the forest. She does not cut a circle
under the sun like the Rocky Mountain
eagle, but stays at home to look after family
affairs. She does not swoOp like the condor
of the Cordilleras to transport a rabbit from
the valley to the top of the crags. but just
scratches for a living. How vigorously
with her claws she pulls away the grounl
to bring up what is hidden beneath! When
the breakfast or dining hour arrives. she
begins to prepare the repaSt and calls all her
young to partake.
am in sympathy with the unpretentious
old fashioned hen, because, like most of us,
she has to scratch for a living. She knows
at the start the lesson which most people of
good sense are slow to learn that the gain
ing Of a livelihood implies work, and that
successes do not lie on the surface, but are to
be upturned tv positive and continuous
effort. The reason that society. and the
church. and the world are SO full of failures,
so full OF ~loafers, SO full OF dead beats. is be
cause people are not wise enough to take the
lesson on which any hen would teach them
that il they would find for themselves and
for those dependent upon them anything
worth having they must scratch for 1t.
Solomon said, "Go to the ant, thou slug
CARL" say, go to the hen, thon slug
gard In the Old Testament God compares
Himself to an eagle stirring up her nest, and
in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is
compared to a descending dove, but Christ,
i'll a sermon that begins with cutting sar-
casm for hypocrites and ends with the
paroxysm OF pathos in the text,
Himself to a hen.
One day i'll the country we saw sudden
CONSERVATION in the behavior Of old Dom
mick. Why the hen should be so disturbed
we could not understand. We looked about
to see If a neighbours dog were invading the
farm. We looked up to see If a stormcloud
were lowering. We could see nothing on
the ground that could terroriza, and we
could see nothing in the air to ruffis the
feathers Of the hen. but the loud, wild. af-
frighte1 cluck which brought all her brood
at iull run under her feathers made us look
again around US and above us, when we saw
thathigh up AMI far away thers was a "a.
pacious bird wheeling round and round, an
down and down, and not seeing us as we
stool in they sha low it came nearer and
lower until I'VE saw its teak was curved from
base to tin, and it had two flames OF fire for
ewes, audit was a hawk.
But all the chickens were under old Dom
inicns wing. and either the bird Of prev
caught q glimpse Of Us. or not able to find
the brood hun He'd under wing darted back
into the clouds. So Christ calls with great
earnestness To the young. Why, what is the
matter, 1t Is bright sunlight. and there can
be no danger. Health is there. A goo
home is theirs. Plenty OK fool is theirs.
Prospect of long lite IS theirs. But Christ
continues to call. calls with more EN-
phasis and urges haste and saws not a
second ought 10 be lost. Oh, do tell us what
is the matter Alb, now | see. There are
hawks o. temptation in the air: there are
vultures wheeling for their prey; there are
beass OF death ready II plunge: there are
claws OF allurement ready to clutch. Now
l see the peril. Now / understand the
ursenev. Now I see the only safety. Woulc
that Christ might this day take our sons an
daughters into His shelter. AS a hen gath
ereth her chickens under her wing"
The fact is that the most of them will
never find the shelter unless while they are
chickens. II Is a simple matter of inexor
able statistics that most OF those who do no
come II Christ IN youth never come at all
What chance is there for the young withou
divine protection: There gre the gro
shops. There are the gambling helIs, Their
are the in.iellties and imulorali,ies Q
splr4tualisu. There ara bal BOOKS. Their
are impurities. Their, ara the business ras
~calitles. And 80 numerous are these assat
rneuts that II is A wonder that honesty an
virtue are not los. art.
The birds OF prey, diUrnal and Nocturnal
Of the natural world "a ever Ga the alert
They are the assasslu>ot the SKY. Tuey hay
varieties O. taste. Tie eagle prefers Il