The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-07-07
SONGS OF BIRDS.
DR.. Talmage on the Lessons Taught
by the Songsters.
Melody That Is Divineiy Taught The
Birds Sing On, Although Dangers
Surround Them-Songs of
the Home.

In a late sermon at Brooklyn Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage took for his subject
''The Songs of Birds" The text was
from Psalms civ. 10: ''By them shall the
fowls of the heaven have their habita-
ton. which sing among the branches J"
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
coves of the national libraries. But
about the song of birds there is as
much silence as though, a thousand
years ago, the last lark had, with his
wing, swept the door latch of Heaven.
and as though never a whippoorwill
had sung its lullaby to a slumbering
forest at nightfall.
First, l remark that which will sur
prise many, that the song of birds is
regulated and systematic song, capa-
bic 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 foclIs are holding
matin or vesper service, we are apt to
think that the sounds are eXtempor-
lied. the rising or falling tone is
mere accident, it is flung up and down
by haphazard, the bird did not know
what it was doing, il did not care
whether it was a long-meter psalm or
q madrigaL What a mistake! The
musician never put on the music-rack
before him Memberships Elijah" or
Beethoven's Concerto" in G, or Spohr's
B fiat 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 goldfnch has for G, ZOO years been
singing Decree dee-ee-rcee." But
these sounds, which we put in harsh
words, they put in cadences, rhythmic,
soulful and enrapturing. Now, if there
is this order and standardization 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 a
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 50 indifferent about the
musical development of the immortals
in their household? While God will
accept our attempts to sing, though it
be only hum or drone, if we can do
no better, what a 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
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, / notice in the song of birds
that it is a divinely taught song. The
rarest prima donna of all the earth
could not teach the robin one musical
note. A kingfsher flying over the roof
of a 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 nest of straw or moss or
sticks, and taught them how to lift that
song into the higher heavens and
spri5le the earth with its dulcet en-
chantments, God-fasEioned, God-tuned,
God-launched, God-lifted muisc! And
there is kind of music that the Lord
only can impart t you, my nearer.
There have been depraved, reprobate
and blasphemous souls which could
sing till great auditoriums were
in raptures- There have been
soloists and baSsos, and baritones and
sopranos whose brilliancy in concert
halls has not been more famous than
their debaucheries. But there is 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
those which David and Job mentioned.
Songs full of faith and tenderness and
prayer, like those which the Christian
mother sings over the sick cradle.
Songs of broken heart being healed.
Songs of the dying flashed upon by
opening portals of amethyst. Songs
like that which Paul commended to
the Collossians, when he said: "Admon-
ish one another in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing, with grace
in your hearts, 20 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 they came to Zion.
Further, / remark in regard to the
song of birds, that il is trustful and
without any fear of what may yet
come VIII you tell me how it is posi-
bic for that wren, that sparrow, that
chickadee, to sing so sweetly when
they may at any time be bounced. on
by hawk and torn wing from wing?
There are cruel bealzs in thicket and