The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-01-11
G0DAMONG THE BIRDS
DR. TALMAGE DRAWS MANY LES
SONS FROM THE FOWLS.

! Ogy Is Surely a Divine Science.
} BROOKLYN, Jan. s.-Dr. Talmage this
morning continued the course of sermons
begun few Sabbaths ago. Having
preached about the Astronomy of the
Bible; or. God Among the Stars" and the
Chronology of the Bible; or, God Among
the Centuries" this morning he discoursed
on the 'Ornithology of the Bible; or, God
Among the Birds" The text was Mat
thew vi, %, Behold the fowls of the ARP
There Is silence now in all our January
forests, except as the winds whistle through
the bare branches. Our northern woods
are deserted concert halls The organ lofts
In the temple of nature are hymnless. Trees
which were full Of carol and chirp and
chant are now waiting for the coming back
of rich plunles and warbling voices, solos,
duets, quartets, cGntatas and TIE Deums.
But the Bible IL full of birds at all seasons,
and prophets and patriarchs and apostles
and eyangelists and Christ himself employ
them for moral and religious purposes.
Ny text is an extract from the sermon on
the mount and perhaps it was at moment
when flock of birds few past that Christ
waved his hand toward them and said,
Behold the fowls Of the airI' And So in
this course of sermons ON God everywhere,
ing the Ornithology of the Bible or. God
Among the Birds.
ORNITHOLOGY Is DIVINE.
Most Of the other sciences you may 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 divine command Is posi-
tive when 1t says in my text, Behold the
fowls of the ARR That is. study their hab-
bits. Examine their c0lors. Notice their
speed. See the hand Of God In their con-
struction. IL is easy for me to obey the
command of the text, for / was brought up
among this race OF wings and from boyhOOd
heard their mathis at sunrise and their YES
pers at sunset
Their nests have been to me a fascina-
ton, and my satisfaction is that | never
robbed one of them, any more than would
steal child from a cradle, for bird is a
child of the sky, and its nest is the cradle.
They are almost human, for they have
their loves ana hates. afIinities and autipa-
thies, understand joy and grief, have cOnju-
gal and maternal instinct. wage wars ard
entertain jealousies. have a language Of
their own and powers of association. Thank
God for birds and skies full of them. 1t
i useless TO expect to understand the Bible
unless we study natural history.
Five hundred and ninety-three times does
the Bible allude 20 the facts of natural his
tory. and do not wonder that it makes so
many illusions archaeological The skies
and the caverns of Palestine are friendly to
the winged creatures, and 50 many fly and
rOost and nest and hatch in that region that
inspired writers do not have far 70 90 to
get Ornithological illustration of divine
truth There are over forty species of birds
recognized in the Scriptures. On. what a
variety of wings in Palestinel
The dove, the robin, the eagle, the cor
morant, OF plunging bird, hurting itself
from sky to wave and with long beak
clutehing its prey; the thrush, which espe-
cially dislikes crowd; the partridge; the
hawk, bold and ruthless, lowering head to
windward while watching for prey: the
swan, At home among the marshes and
with feet 50 constructed it can walk on the
leaves Of water plants: the raven the lap
wing. malotorous, and in the Bible de
nounced ~ inedible, though it has extraor-
binary 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 Hchylus. the Greek
poet, for a white stone and dropped a
the cuckoo, with crested head and crimson
throat and wings snow tipped, but too lazy
70 build its own nest and so having the
habit of depositing its eggs in nests belong
ing 10 other birds; the blue jay, the grouse,
the plover, the maybe, the kingfsher; the
pelican. WHICH is the caricature of all the
feathered creation; the owl, the goldfnch,
the bittern, the barrier the bulbul, the
osprey, the vulture, that king of scav-
engers, with neck covered with repul-
sive down instead of attractive feath-
ers, the quarrelsOme starting, the swal-
low, flying n mile a minute and some
times ten hours In succession; the
heron, the quail, the peacock. the ostrich,
the lark, the crow, the kite. the bat.
the blackbird and many others, with all
colOrs, all sounds, all styles of fight, all
habits. ali architecture OF nests, leaving
nothing wanting in suggestiveness. They
were at the creation placed all around on
the rocks and in the trees and on the ground
10 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
birds voice
THERE Is A CHRISTIAN GEOLOGY.
Yea, Christian geolOgy-for you know
there Is Christian geology as well as an
ipfidel geology-Christian geology comes
IN and helps the Bible show what we owe
TO the bird cIestion. Before the human
race came into this world the world was
occupied by reptiles and By all styles of
destructive mCnSters-milliOns of creatures
loathsome ard hideOus. God sent huge
birds 70 clear the earth of these creatures
hafC 8 4 nh
remains OF these birds have been found i'm
bedded 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 armies of beaks and claws
were necessary TO clear the earth OF crea-
lures that would have destroyed the human
race with one clip. / like to End this har.
mony 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 and
great man for facts, had enough senti-
ment and poetry and musical taste 10 wei
come the illumiued wings and the voices
divinely drilled into the first chapter Of
Genesis How should Noah. the old ship
carpenter. COO years Of age, find out whan
the world was fir again for human residence
after the universal freshet; A bird will
tell, and nothing else can, No man can
come down from the mountain TO invite
Noah and his family out TO terra iTna. for
the mountains were submerged. As a bird
first heralded the human race into the
world, now bird VIII help the human race
back to the world that had shipped a sea
that whelmed everything
Noah stands en- Sunday morning at the
window Of the ark, in his hand coOing