The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-03-04

ing the whiteness about the gills and the
beak down in the mud show that the
mother Is dead, and the young ones come
out and cannot understand why the
mother does not scratch for them some
thing to eat, and they walk over her
wings and call with their tiny voices,
but there is no answering cluck She
took the storm for others and persisted.
Poor thing! Self sacrificing even unto
death!
And does it not make you think of him
who endured all for us? So the wings
under which we come for spiritual safety
are blood spattered wings, are night shat
tered wings, are tempest torn wings.
In the Isle Of Wight saw the grave OF
Princess Elizabeth, who died while
prisoner at Carisbrook castle, her finger
on AIN open Bible and pointing to the
words, "Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and will give you
rest" Oh, come under the wingsl
But now the summer day is almost
passed, and the shadows Of the house
and barn and wagon shed have length
ensd. The farmer, with soythe or hoe
ON shoulder, is returning from the fields.
The oxen are unyoked. The horses are
crunching the oats at the full bin. The
air is bewitched Of honeysuckle and wiz
brier. The millman, pail in bend, is
approaching the barnyard. The fowls,
keeping early hours, are collecting their
young, ssCluckl'' sCluck!" ''Cluckw and
soon all the eyes of that feathered nursery
are closed.
The bachelors Of the winged tribe have
assembled to their perch, but the hens, in
motherhood divinely appointed, take
all the risk of q slumber on the ground,
and all night long the wings will stay
outspread, and the little ones will not
utter sound. Thus at shutdown, low
ingly, safely, completely, the hen broods
her young. So, if we are the Lords, the
evening of our life will come. The heats
of the day will have passed. There will
be shadows and we cannot see as far.
The work Of life will be about ended.
The hawks Of temptation that lowered
in the sky will have gone to the woods
and folded their wings. Sweet silences
will come down. The air will be redo
lent with the breath of whole arbors of
promises swecter than jasmine or even
ing primrose The air may be a little
chill, but Ch1dst will call us, and evil
know the voice and heed the call, and we
will come under the wings for the night
the strong wings, the soft wings, the
warm wings-and without fear and in
full sense Of safety, and then we will
u 10 hon
gathereth her chickens under her wing. )"
Dear me, how many souls the Lord 'haGh
thus brooded!.
Mothers, after watching over sick era
dies and then watching afterward over
wayward sons and daughters, at last
themselves taken care of by a motherly
God. Business men, after a lifetime
struggling with the uncertainties Of
money markets, and the change of tariffs,
and the underselling of men who be-
cause of their dishonesties can afford to
undersen, and years of disappointment
and struggle, at last under wings where
nothing can perturb them any more than
bird of prey which is 10 miles off dis
turbs chick at midnight brooded in
barnyard.
TRUSTING IN DIVINE SHELTER.
My text has its strongest application
for people who were born in the country,
wherever you may now live, and that is
the majority of you. You cannot hear
my text without having all the rustic
scenes of the old farmhouse come back
to you. Good old days they were. You
knew nothing much of the world, for
you had not seen the world.
By law of association you cannot recall
the brooding hen and her chickens with
out seeing also the barn, and the hay
NOW, and the wagon shed, and the
house, and tae room where you played,
and the 6reside with the big backlog
before which you sat, and the neighbors,
and the burial, and the wedding, and
the deep snewbanks, and hear the vii
lage bell THAI called you to worship, and
seeing the horses which, after pulling
you to church, stood around the old clap
boarded meeting house, and those who
sat at either end Of the church pew, and
indeed all the scenes of the first IA years,
and you think of what you were then
and of what you are now, and all these
thoughts are aroused by the sight of the
old henooop.
Some of you had better go back and
start again In thought return to that
place and hear the cluck and see the
outspread feathers and come under the
wing and make the Lord your portion
and shelter and warmth, preparing for
everything that may come, and SO avoid
being classsd among those described by
the closing words Of my text, fas a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wing,
and ye would not" All, that throws
the responsibility upon us! eye would
not" Alas, for the would nots!' IF
the wandering broods of the farm heed
not their mothers call and risk the
hawk and dare the freshet and expose
themselves to the frost and storm, sure
iy their calanities are not their moth
ers fault. eye would notT God would,
hut how many would not! -z-
Oh, ye wanderers from God and hap
1,ipess and home and heaven. come under