Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-07-01
SONGS OF BIRDS.
DR. Talmage on the Lessons Taught
by the Songsters.
Melody That Ia Divinely Taught The
Birds Sing On, Although Dangers
Surround Thcm--songs of
the Home.

IVNltb tOOh III SupJCSt
"The Songs of Birds" The text was
from Psalms civ. lie by them shall the
fowls of the heaven have their habita-
ton, which sing among the branches. u
He said:
There is an important and improving
subject to which most people have
given no thought, and concerning
which this is the first pulpit discussion,
namely, the Song of Birds. If all that
has been written concerning music by
human voice or about music sounded
on instrument by finger or the breath
were put together, volume by the side
of volume, it would fill hundred al
ceves of the national libraries But
about the song of birds there is as
much silence as though. Thousand
years ago. the last lark had. with his
wing, swept the door latch of Heaven.
and rs though never whippoorwill
had sung its lullaby to slumbering
forest ut nightfall.
First, remark that which will sur
prise many. that the song of birds is n
regulated and systematic song, capa-
BILE of being written out in note and
staff and bar and clef, as much as any
thing that Wagner or Schuman or Han
del ever put on paper. AS we pass the
groves where the focks are holding
matin cr vesper service, we are apt to
think that the sounds are eXtempor-
lied. the rising or falling tone is n
mere accident, it is flung up and down
by haphazard. the bird did not know
what it was doing, it did not care
whether it was long-meter psalm or
a madrigal. What u mistake! The
musician never put on the music-rack
before him Memberships ''Elijah" or
Beethoven's Concerto" in G, or Spohr's
b fat Symphony with more definite
idea as to what he was doing than
every bird that can sing at all confines
himself to accurate and predetermined
rendering. The oratorios, the chants,
the carols. the overtures, the inter-
ludes, the ballads, the canticles, that
this morning were heard or will this
evening be heard in the forest have
rolled down through the ages without
a variation.
The goldfinch has for 6, 900 years been
singing Decree dee-ee-reee." But
these sounds. which we put in harsh
words. they put in cadences, rhythmic,
soulful and enrapturing Now, if there
is this order and systematizaticn and
rhythm all through Gods creation.
does it not imply that we should have
the same characteristics in the music
we make or try to make? Is it not n
wickedness that so many parents give
no opportunity for the culture of their
children in the art of sweet sound? If
God stoops to educate every bluebird,
oriole and grosbeak in song. how can
parents be so Indifferent about the
musical development of the immortals
in their household? While God will
accept our attempts to sing, though 1t
be only hum or drone. if we can do
no better, what shame that, in this
last decade of the nineteenth century,
when so many orchestral batons are
waving and so many academies of mu-
sic are in full concert and so many
skilled men and women are waiting to
offer instruction, there are so many
people who cannot sing with any con-
fidence in the house of God, because
they have had no culture in this sacred
art, or, while they are able to sing a
fantasia at piano amid the fiuttering
fans of social admirers, nevertheless
feel utterly helpless when, in church,
the surges of an Ariel or an Antioch
roll over them.
Further, l notice in the song of birds
that it is divinely taught song. The
rarest prima donna of all the earth
could not teach the robin one musical
note. A kingfisher flying over the roof
of temple aquake with harmonies
would not catch up one melody. From
the time that the first birds throat was
fashioned on the banks of the Gihon
and Hiddekel until to-day on the Hud-
son or Rhine the winged creature has
learned nothing from the human race
in the way of carol or anthem. The
feathered songsters learned all their
music direct from God. He gave them
the art in a nest of straw or moss or
sticks, and taught them how to lift that
song into the higher heavens and
sprikle the earth with its dulcet en-
chantments, God-fashioned, God-tuned,
God-launched, God-lifted muisc! And
there is kind of music that she Lord
only can impart t. you, my hearer
There have been dearaved, reprobate
and blasphemous sous which could
sing till great auditoriums were
in raptures. There have been
solcists and bassos, and baritones and
sopranos whose brilliancy in corcert
halls has not been more famous than
their debaucheries. But there isa king
of song, which, like the song of birds,
Is divinely fashioned. Songs of par
don. Songs of divine comfort. Songs
of worship ''Songs in the night" like