The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-03-04

wrong motives. Put a dollar in the
moor box. and they will say that ne
dropped it there only that he might
hear it ring. Invite them to Christ and
they will call you fanatic. Let there
be contention among Christians, and
they will say: 'Hurrah! the church is
in decadence" Christ intended that |
His church should always remain a
speckled bird. Let birds OF another
feather pick at her. But they can not
rob her of a single plume. Like the
albatross, she can sleep on the bosom
of TEMPEST. She has gone through |
the fires of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace
and not got burned, through the waters
of the Red sea and not been drowned.
through the shipwreck on the breakers
of Melita and not been foundered. Let
all earth and hell try to hunt down
this speckled bird, but far above hui
man scorn and internal assault, it shall
sing over every mountain top and fly
over every nation, and her triumphant
song shall be, 1.-THE Church OF God!
The pillar and ground OF the truth.
The gates of hell shall not prevail
against her.. "a
But we can not stop here. From a
tall cliff hanging over the sea hear
the eagle calling unto the tempest and
lifting it's wing to smite the whirl-
wind. Moses, Jeremiah. Hosea and
Habakkuk at times, in their writings,
take their pen from the eagles wing.
It is a bird with ferceness in its eye,
its feet armed with claws of iron,
and its head with dreaded beak.
Two or three of them can fill the
heavens with clangor. But general
" this monster of the air is
alone and unaccompanied, for the rea-
son that its habits are so predaceous it
| requires five or ten miles Of aerial or
| earthly dominion all for itself. The
black-brown of its back, and the white
of its lower feathers, and the fire OF its
eye, and the long flap of its wing take
one glimpse of it as it swings down in
to the valley to pick up rabbit or
child and then swings back to its throne
| on the rock, something never to be for
| gotten. Scattered about its eyrie OF al
| titudinous solitude are the bones
of its conquests. But while
the beak and the claws OF the
eagle are the terror OF all the
travele rs of the air, the mother eagle
is most kind and gentle to her young.
God compares His treatment OF His
people to the eagles care of the eaglets.
Deuteronomy xxi, IL: "As an eagle
stirreth up her nest, futtereth over her
| young, spreading abroad her wings,
taketh them, beareth them on her
wings. SO the Lord alone did lead"
The old eagle first shoves one out OF
the nest in order to make it fly, and
then takes it on her back and flies with
1T, and shakes it off in the air, and If it
seems like falling, quickly flies under 1t
and takes it on her wing again. 80
God does with u.s. Disaster, failure in
business, disappointment, bereave-
ment, is only Gods way OF
shaking us out of our comfortable nest
in order that we may learn how to fly.
. You who are complaining that you
have no faith or courage or Christian
zeal, have had it too easy. You never
will learn to fly in that comfortable
. nest. Like an eagle, Christ has carried
us on His back. At times we have beer
, shaken off. and when we were about tt
, fall, He came under us again ane
, brought us ont of the gloomy valley t.
the sunny mountain. Never an eagle
| brooded with such love and care ovel
4 / her young as Gods wings have beer
over us. Across what oceans OF trouble
: we have gone in safety upon the Al
mighty's wings From what mountain
of sin we have been carried and a
times have been borne far up abov
, the gunshot of the world and the arrow
: of the devil. When our time on eartf
) is closed on these great wings OF Co
q we shall speed with infinite qnicknes
from earth's mountains to Heaven
:. hills, and as from the eagles circui
r. under the sun men on the ground seer
I small and insignificant as lizards on
! rock, SO all earthly things shall dwindl
!. into speclx, and the raging river Q
death so far beneath will seem
4 smooth and CLASSY as Swiss lake.
1t was thought in ancient times tina
: an eagle could not only moult hi
feathers in old age, but that after al
irving to great age. it would renew II
strength and become entirely youn
again. To this Isaiah alludes when h
! SAYS: "They that wait on the Lor
= shall renew their strength, they sha
: mount up with wings Of eagles" Eve
- so the Chris tian in old age will rene
e his spiritual strength. He shall
= Young in ardor and enthusiasts
~ for Christ. and as the bod
:. fails the soul will grow
= elasticity, till at death it will sprin
:, up like a gladdened child into Il
- bosom of God Yea, in this ornithologic
- study, see that Job says: "His da.
l. fly as an eagle that hasteth to its prey
- The speed of hungry eagle when
n saw its prey score of miles distant WI
- unimaginable. 1t went like thu
- derbolt for speed and power. So
~ our days. Sixty minutes, ea'
~ worth a heaven, since we asseI
Al bled in this place, have shot Ill
7, lightning into eternity. The old ear
~ is rent and cracked under the swi
- rush of days add months and years al
"a ages. swift as an eagle that haste
,s to its prey" Behold the fowls OF t
~ air. Have you considered that tn
&c have as you and have not the pow