The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-06-28


tion, for many concert in and out of
doors has been ruined by persistent
takers, and then sit down on messy
bank:
Where wild stream with headlong shock
Comes brawling downa bed OF rock
And after perhaps half hour Of in
tense solitude, there will be a tap of
beak on tree branch far up, sounding
like the tap Of musical baton, and
then first there will be solo, followed
by duet or quartet, and afterward by
doxologies in all the tree tops and amid
all the branches, and If you have a
Bible along with you and you can,
without rustling the leaves, turn to the
One Hundred and Forty-eighth Psalm
OF David and read: praise the Lord,
beasts and cattle, creeping things and
flying fowl, and then turn over quietly
to my text and read: by them shall
the fowls of the heaven have their hab-
itation, which sing among the
branches" or, If under the power Of
the bird voices you are transported, as
when DR.. Morgan played so powerfully
on the organ at St. Johns that Richard
Cecil said he was in such blessed be-
wilderment he could not find in his
Bible the first chapter of Isaiah, though
he leafed the book over and over, and
you shall be so overcome with forest
harmony that you cannot find the
Psalms Of David, never mind, for God
will speak to you SO nightly it will
make no difference whether you hear
His voice from the printed page or the
vibrating throat of one of His plumed
creatures.
While this summer more than usual
out OF doors, let us have what my text
suggests,an out-of-doors religion. What
business had David with all the ad-
vantages of costly religious service,
and smoking incense on the altar to be
listening to the chantresses among the
tree branches? All, he wanted to make
himself and all who should come after
him more alert and more worshipful
amid the sweet sounds and beautiful
sights of the natural wo rid. There is
an old church that needs to be re-dedi-
Gated. 1t is older than st. Pauls or
st. Peters or st. Marks or st. Sophia
or st. Isaac's. 1t is the cathedral of
nature. That is the church in which
the services Of the millennium will be
held. The buildings fashi oned out of
stone and brick and mortar will not
hold the people. Again the Mount Of
Olives will be in the pulpit. Again
the Jordan will be the baptistry. Again
the mountains will be the galleries.
Again the skies will be the blue
ceiling. Again the sunrise will be
the front door and the sunset the back
door of that temple. Again the clouds
will be the upholstery and the morning
mist the incense. Again the trees will
be the organ-loft where "the fowls OF
heaven have their habi tation which
sing among the bran ches." Saint
Francis d Assist preached sermon tc
birds and pronounced benedictior
upon them, but all birds preach to us
and their benediction is almost super
nal While, this summer, amid the
works of God, let us learn responsive
ness. Surely, IL we cannot sing, we car
hum tune, and il we cannot hum q
tune, we can whistle. If we cannot
be an oriole, we can be quail. Ii
some way let us demonstrate oar grati'
tude TO God. Let us not be beaten by
the chimney swallow and the hum
ming bird and the brown-thresher. Lei
us try to set eve rything in our life Il
music, and if we cannot give th'
carol of the song sparrow, take the
plant of ther hermit thrush. Let
our life be an anthem Of worship Il
| the God who created us and the Chris
who ransomed us and the Holy Ghos
who sanctifies us. And our last song
May 1t be our best song! The swaI
was thought by the ancicnts leycr q
sing except when dying. In the tint
of Edward ~. no one was allowed t
own a swan except he were king
son, or had considerable estate
Through one or two hun dred years o
life that bird was said never to ute
anything like music until its las
moment came, and then lifting IL
crested beauty, it would pour forth I
song of almost matchless thrill, no
sounding through the groves. And so
although the stru ggles of life may b'
too much for us, and we may find !
hard to sing at all, when the last hou
comes to you and me, may there be {
radiance from above and a glory set
Ting round that shall enable us Il
utter song on the wings of which W.
shall mount to where the music nevel
ceases and the raptures never die.
what is that, motherS" "Tho swan, my love
He is floating down from his native grove,
No loved ono, no nestliag nigh,
He is floating down by himself to die
Death darSens his eye and unplumes HIS wings
Yet the sweetest song is the last he sings
Live so, my child, that when death shall come
| Swan-like and sweet II may watt thee home y
Il