Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-01-20
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE7s SUN
DAY SERMON
Subject: God Among the Birds"

There is silence now in all our January
forests. except as the winds whistle through
the bare branches. Our northern woods
are deserted concert balls The organ lofts
IN the temple Of nature are hymnless. Trees
which were full of carol and chirp and chant
are now waiting for the coming back OF
r1ch piumes and warbling voices. solos,
duets. quartetes. cantatas and TIE Deums.
But the Bible is full OF birds at all seasons.
and prophets and patriots and apostles. and
Chr1st Himself, employ them for moral and
religious purposes. Ny text IS an extract
from the sermon on the mount. and perhaps
1t was at a moment when flock Of birds
few past that Christ waved His hand toward
them and said, "Behold the fowls Of the air p
And so in this course of sermons on God
everywhere l preach to you this third SER
mon concerning the Ornithology of the
Bible; or, God Among the Birds.
Most OF the other sciences you may study
or not study as you please. Use your own
Judgment, exercise your own taste. But
about this science of orpithoiogy we have
no option. The divine command is positive
when it saws 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 the
race of wings and from boyhood heard their
mathis at sunrise and their vespers at sun
set.
Their nests have been to me a fascinq ton.
and my satIsfa ctlOn is that [ never robbed
one OF them any more than [ would steal a
child from cradle, for bird is child of
the SKY, and It's nest is the cradle. They are
almost human, for they have their loves and
hates, attinlties and antipathies, understand
JOY and grief have cOnjugal and maternal
instinct, wage wars and entertain jealOuSes,
have language of their own and powers OF
association. Thank God for birds and skies
full of them It is useless to exoect to I'M
derstand the Bible unless we study natural
history.
Five hundred and ninety-three times does
the Bible aIude to the facts of natural his.
tory, and do not wenC or that it makes so
many illusions OrnithOlOgical. 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
ornithOlOgical illustration of divine truth.
There are over forty species of birds recog-
nized in the Scriptures.
Oh, what variety Of wings in Palestinel
The dove, the robin, the eagle, the cormo-
rant or p.un2ing bird hurting itself from
sky to wave aud with long beak clutching
its prey; the thrush, which especially dis
likes crow: the parTidges: the hawk,
bold and ruthless, lowering head to wind
ward while watching for prey; the swan at
home among the marshes aud with feet so
constructed 1t can walk on the leaves of wa
ter plants; the raven, the lapwing, malodor.
Gus and in the Bible denounced as inedble
though it has extraordinary headdress;
the stOrk; the ossifrage, that always
had habit of dropping ON stone the turtle
it had lifted and SO killing it for food and
on one occasion mistook the bald head of
Aschylus, the Greek poet, for a white stone,
and dropped 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 deposting its
eggs IN nests belonging to other blrts; the
buejay, the grouse, the ploveT, the magpie
the kingtisher, the pelican, which is the carl
cature Of all the feathered creation; the owl,
the gOldfncb, the bittern, the barrier, the
bulbul, tke osprey; the vulture, that king Of
scavenGseG, with neck covered with repulSive
down instead of attractive feathers; the quar-
relsome startling; the swallow, flying mile a
minute and sometimes ten hours IN success
sion the heron, the quail, the peacock, the os-
trich, the lark, the crow, the kite, the bat,
the blackbird and many Others, with all
cOlors, all sounds, all styles Of flight, all
habits, all architecture of nests, leaving
nothing wanting in suggestiveness. They
were at the creation placed 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 a
birds voice.
Yea, Christian geology-for you know
there IS Christian geology as we'll an in
tidel geology-Chrlstlan geology comes in
and helps the Bible show what we owe to
the bird creation. Before the human race
came into this world the world was occupied
by reptiles and by all sorts of destructive
transformations of creatures, loathsOme
and hideOus. God sent huge birds to clear
the earth OF these creatures before Adam
and Eve were created. The remains OF these
birds have been found imbedded in the
has L-nta of of orrln hos hopY0
fOu.Id twenty feet in height and fifty feet
from tip Of wing to tip of wing. Many ar
mics of bea ks and claws were necessary to
clear the earth of creatures that would have
destroyed tle human race with one clip. [
like TO find this harmony of revelation and
science, and to have demonstra ted that the
God who made the world made the Bible.
Moses, the greatest lawyer of all time and
a great man for facts, had enough senti-
ment and poetry and musical taste to well
come the Illuminated wings and the voices
diviney drilled into the first chapter of
Genises. How should Noah, the old ship
carpenter, go years OF age, find out when
the world was fit again for human residence
after the universal freshet? bird will
tell, and nothing else can. No man can
come down from the mountain TO invite
Noah and his family out to terra firma, for
the mountains were submerged. AS bird
first heralded the human race into the
world, now bird will help the human race
back to the world that had shipped a sea
that whelmed everything.
Noah stands on Sunday morning at the
window of the ark, in his hand a cooling
dove so gentle, so innocent, so afectionate.
and he said: Now, my little dove, fly away
over these waters, explore and come back
and tell US whether it is safe to land" After
long fight it returned hungry and weary
and wet, and by its looks and manners said
to Noah and his family: The world is not
q g.