The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-01-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Hrhe Ornithology Of the Bible" or
God Among the Birds.
The Fowls of the Air Teach Their Les
sOns-In Their Coming and Going
They Fulfill DivInely
Created Law.

/ ton of his series of sermons on Jpecial
Bible subjects, delivered the following
in the Brooklyn tabernacle, taking for
his text:
Behold the fowls Of the air.-Mathew vi, %.
| There is silence now in all our Janu-
airy forests, except as the wind whistles
| 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 ehirp and chant
are now waiting for the coming back
of rich plumes and warbling voices,
solos, duets, quartettes, cantatas and
TIE Deums. But the Bible is full of
birds at all seasons, and prophets and
patriachs and apostles and evangelists
and Christ Himself employ them for
moral and religious purposes. My text
is an extract from the Sermon on the
Mount, and perhaps it was at a mo-
ment when flock of birds flew past
that Christ waved His hand toward
them, and said: "Behold the fowls of
the air." And so, in this course of SER
mons on ''God Everywhere" 1 preach
to you this third sermon concerning
the ''Ornithology of the Bible, or God
Among the Birds.
Most of the other sciences you may
study or not as you please. Use your
own judgment, exercise your own
taste. But about this science of orni-
thology we have no option. The Divine
command is positive when it says in my
| text: Behold the fowls of the air!'
| That is, study their habits. Examine
their colors. Notice their speed. See
the hand of God in their construction.
1t 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
vespers at sunset. Their nests have
been to me fascination. and my salts
| faction is that / never robbed one of
| them, any more than would steal a child
from a cradle, for bird is child of
the sky, and its nest is the cradle. They
are almost human, for they have their
loves and hates, affinities and antipa-
thies, understand joy and grief, have
conjugal and maternal instinct, wage
wars and entertain jealousies, have a
language of their own and powers of
association. Thank God for birds and
skies full of them. 1t is useless to ex-
pect to understand the Bible unless we
study natural history. Five hundred
and ninety-three times does the Bible
allude to the facts of natural history,
and do not wonder that it makes so
many illusions pathological. The
| skies and the caverns of Palestine are
friendly to the winged creatures, and
SO many fly and roost and nest and
hatch in that region that inspired
writers do not have far to go to get or
astrological illustration of Divine truth.
There are over forty species of birds
recognized in the Scriptures. Oh, what
a variety of wings in Palestine. The
dove, the robin, the eagle, the cor
morant or plunging bird, hurting itself
from sky to wave, and with long beal1
clutching its prey; the thrush, which
especially dislikes q crowd; the par
fridge, the hawk, bold and ruthless,
| lowering head to windward, while
watching for prey; the swan, at home
among the marshes and with feet so
constructed it can walk on the leaves
of water plants; the raven, the lap
wing, malodorous and in the Bible de-
nounced as inedible, though it has ex-
traordinary head-dress; the storl1, the
ossifrage, that always had 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
Eschylus, the Greek poet, for a white
stone and dropped a turtle upon it,
killing the famous Greek; the cuckoo,
with crested head and crimson throat
and wings snow-tipped, but too lazy to
build its own nest, and so having the
habit of depositing it's eggs in nests
belonging to other birds, the blue jay,
the grouse, the plover, the magpie, the
kingfsher, the pelican, which is the
caricature of all the feathered creation,
the owl, the goldfinch, the bittern, the
barrier, the bulbul, the osprey, the
vulture, that king of scavengers, with
neck covered with repulsive down in
| stead of attractive feathers, the quar-
relsome startling, the swallow, flying
a mile minute, and sometimes 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. all architecture of nests,
leaving nothing wanting in suggestive
/
all around on the rocks and in the
trees and on the ground to 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.
Yea, Christian geology (for you know
there is a Christian geology as well as
an infidel geology, Christian geology
comes in and helps the Bible show
what we owe to the bird creation. Be
| fore the human race came into the
world the world was occupied by rep
| tiles and by all kinds of destructive
monsters, millions of creatures loath-
some and hineous. God sent huge
birds to clear the earth of these crea-
lures before Adam and Eve were ere
Ated. The remains of these birds have
been found imbedded 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 bealxs and claws were neces-
sary to clear the earth of creatures
race with one clip. like to find this
harmony of revelation and science, and
to have demonstrated that the God who
made the world made the Bible.
Aye, here come a whole flock of
| doves-rock-doves, ring-doves, stock
doves, and they make Isaiah think Of
great revivals and great awakenings
| when souls fy for shelter like a flock of