The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-06-30

night" like those which David and job
mentioned. Songs full of faith and ten,
derness and prayer, like those which the
Christian mother sings over the sick era.
die. Songs of broken heart being
healed, Songs of the dying flashed upon
by opening portals of amethyst.
Songs like that which Paul COM
mended to the Colossians when he said,
"Admonish one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing, with
grace in your hearts, to the Lord" Songs
like Moses sang after the tragedy of the
Red sea, songs like Deborah and Barak
sang at the overthrow of Sisera, songs
like Isaiah heard the redeemed sing as
he came to Zion. Oh, God, teach us
that kind of song which thou only canst
teach and help us to sing it on earth
and sing II in heaven. 1t was the high
est result of sweet sound when under
the playing of Paganini one auditor ex-
claimed reverently, "Oh, Godp and an
other sobbed out, "Oh, Christi
Further; l remark in regard to the
song of birds that it is trustful and
without any fear of what may yet come.
Will you tell me how it is possible for
that wren, that sparrow, that chickadee,
to sing so sweetly when they may any
time be pohnced on by hawk and torn
wing from wing? There are cruel beaks
in thicket and in sky ready to Stay the
song birds. Herods ON the wing Mo
docs of the sky. Assassins armed with
iron claw. Murderers of song floating
up and down the heavens. How can the
birds sing amid such perils? Besides that.
how is the bird sure to get its foodp Mil
lions of birds have been starved. Yet it
sings in the dawn without any certainty
of breakfast or dinner or supper. Would
it not be better to gather its food for the
day before vocalizing?
Besides that, the hunters are abroad.
Bang! goes gun in one direction. Bang!
goes a gun in another direction. The
song will attract the shot and add to the
peril. Besides that. yonder is thun-
dercloud, and there may be hurricane
and hail to be let loose, and what then
will become of you, the poor warbler?
Besides that, winter will come, and it
may be smitten down before it gets to
the tropics. Have you never seen the
snow strewn with the birds belated in
their migration? The titmouse mingles
its voice with the snowstorms as Emer-
sen describes the little thing he found in
tempestuous January:
uo,o urae The oto,, in fuil brootb
Hurting defiance at vast death;
This scrap of valor, just for play,
Fronts the north wind in waistcoat gray
SONGS OF HOPE AND TRUST.
For every bird thousand perils and
disasters lowering and sweeping round
and round Yet there it sings, and it is
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 sings at all, you
will expect her to Fender the saddest of
threnodies No, no. She sings exultingly
an hour without a pause and mounting
5000 feet without losing note, Would
God we all might learn the lesson.
Whatever pclils, whatever bereavements,
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
1t all. David, the pursued of Absalom
and the betrayed of Ahithophel and the
depleted of ''sores that ran in the night"
presents us to best songs of the Bible.
John Milton, not able to see his hand be-
fore his face, sings for us the most ia
nous poem of all literature, and some of
the most cheerful people have ever met
have been Christian people under phys
ical or domestic or public torment. The
songs of Charles Wesley, which we now
calmly sing in church, We're composed
by him between mobs.
Further, in the sky galleries there are
songs adapted to all moods. The mead
ow lark is mournful, and the goldfnch
joyous, and the grosbeak prolonged Of
note. But the libretto of nature is vo-
luminous. Are you sad? You can hear
from the bowers the echo of your grief.
Are you glad? You can hear an echo of
your happiness. Are you thoughtful?
You can hear that which will plunge you
into deeper profound. Are you weary?
You may catch restful air. So the
songs of birds are administrative in all
circumstances. And we would do well
to have a hynnology for all changes of
condition. You may sing your woes into
peace and rouse your joys into greater
attitudes. Upon every condition of body
and soul, let us try the power of song.
The multitudinous utterances of grove
and orchard and garden and forest sug-
gest most delightful possibilities.
Further, l notice that the song of
birds is a family song. Even those of
the feathered throngs which have no
song at all make what utterances they
do in sounds of their own family of
birds. The boot of the owl, the chatter
Of the magpie, the crow of the chanti-
cleer, the drumming of the grouse, the
laugh of the loon In the Adirondacks,
the cackle Of the hen, the scream of the
eagle, the croak of the raven, are sounds
belonging to each particular family
But when You come to those which have
real songs, how suggestive that it is al
ways family song! All the skylarks,
all the nightingales, all the goldfnches,
all the blackbirds, all the cuckoos, pre-
fer the song of their own family and
never sing anything else.
So the most deeply impressive songs
we ever sing are family songs. They
have come down from generation to
generation. You 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
banks of the Ohio, or the Alabama, or
the Androscoggin, or the Connecticut,
or the Tweed, or the Thames, or the
Raritan2 That song at eventide, when
you were tired out-indeed too tired to
sleep, and you cried with leg ache, and
you were rocked and sung to sleep-you
hear it now, the soft voice from sweet
Inns She as tired perhaDs more tired