The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1893-01-19

|
the anxious sighs her bosom heayed AS
we lay upon ii, the sick nights when she
watched so long after every one was
Iired out but God and herself. Her
ipeDlood Deats IN our heart and her
image lives in our face. That man is
eraceless as cannibal who ill treats
MS parents, and he who hegrudges
them daily bread and clothes them but
snabbily-may God have patience with
MIN; cannot. | heard man once
say, " now have my old mother on my
nands. 1e storks on your way with
Iood TO your aged parents, shame him! I!
But yonder in this Bible sky flies q
nlrd that is speckled. The prophet de-
STihlng the church cries out, Mine
heritage Is unto me as a speckled brd. .
me oirds round about are against her"
), it was then; so 1t is now. Holiness
picked at. Conservation picked at.
BenevOlence picked at. Usefulness
picked at. A speckled bird is a ppcul-
lar hird, and that arnuses the antipathy
OF all the beaks of the forest. The
churrh or God is a peculiar institution,
ana mat Is enough to evoke attack of
the world, for it, Is a speckled bird to be
picked at. The Inconsistencies of
Christians are a banquet on which mul-
titudes get fat. They ascribe every
thug you do to wrong motives. Put
a dollar in the poor box, and they will
say tina, you dropped it there only that
you might hear it ring Invite them
to Christ. and they will call YOU ia.
matte.
Let there be contention among Chris
! tlans, and they will say: "Iurrah,
The church is In decadence" Christ
| intended that his church should ALWAYS
remain speckled bird Let birds OF
another feather pick at h-r, but they
cannot rob her of a single plume. Like
the albatrosS. she can sleep on the
bosom OF tempest. She has gone
! through the fires of NebuchadneZZar's 8
! furnace and not got burned, through
| the waters of the Red sea and not been
drowned, through the shipwreck on the
breakers OF Melita and not been found
cred. Let all earth and hell try to hunt
down this Speckled bird, but far above
human scorn and internal assault il
snail ing over every mountain top and
lily over every nation, and her ,rium-
God! The pillar and ground of the
truth. The gates of hell shall not pre-
vail against her.
But we cannot stop here. From a
tall cliff, hanging over the sea, hear
the eagle calling unto the tempest and
| !itting It's wing to smlte the whlrlwind.
Moses, jeremiah, Hosea and EIabakkuk
at times in their writings take their pen
from the eagles wing. 1t ia Il bird with
herceness in its eye, its feet armed
with claws of iron, and its head with a
dreadful beak. Two or three of them
can I'LL the heavens with clahgor. But
generally this monster of the air is
alone and unaccompanied, far the
reason that its habits are SO DredaceOus )
ltrequires five or ten miles of aerial or
earthly dominion all for Itself.
The black brown of its back, and the
white of its lower feathers, and the fire
Of its eye. and the long flap of its wing
make one glimpse of il as it swings
down into the valley to pick up rab.
olC, or lamb, or q child and then
swings back to its throne on the rock
something never to be forgotten. Scat
tered about its eyrie OF altitudinous
solitude are the bonAs of its cOnuuests.
But while the beak and the claws Of the
eagle are the terror of all the travellers
OF the air, the mother eagle is m, st
kind and gentle to her young.
| God compares his treatment of his
people to the eagles care OF the eaglets.
Deuteronomy xxxii, II, "As an eagle
Stlrreth up her nest, tluttereth over her
l y ..
taketh lhe.n, beareth them on her
wings. so the Lord alone did lead" The
old eagle first shOveS the young one
out OF the nest in OF der to make it fly,
and then takes it. OH her back and flies
with L., and shakes il eff in the air, and
IT 1T seems like falling quickly flies un.
der 1t and takes it on her wing again.
SO God does with us. Disaster, failure
IN business, disappointment, bereave-
ment, Is only Gods way of shaking us
out OF our comfortable nests in order
that we may learn how to fly.
| You who are complaining that you
have no faith or courage or Christian
zeal have had iL too easy. You never
will learn to fly IL that comfortable
nest. Like an eagle. Christ has carried
us on his back. At times we have been
shaken off, and when we were about
to fall he came under us again and
brought us out of the gloomy valley to
| the sunny mOuntaiD. Never an eagle
Orooded with such love and care over
her young as Coos wings have been
over us. Across what oceans of trou-
| ble we have gone in safety upon the
Almighty wings. From what noun
tains of sin we have been carried and
AT times have been borne up far above
the gunshot of the world and the arrow
vi Iiio uSFll
When our time on earth is closed, on
these great wings of Gud we shall speed
with infinite Quickness from earth's
mountains to heavens hills, and as
from the eagles circuit under the sun
men Oh the ground seem small and in
significant as lizards on rock, 80 all
earthly things shall dwiudleiutoa Il peck
and the raging river of death so far he-
meath will seem smooth and CLASSY as
a Swiss lake.
1t was thought in ancient lines that
an eagle could not only mott it's tear hers
in old age, but that after arriving at
great age 1T would renew its strength
and become entirely young again. TO
this Isaiah aIludes when he says. 'Thpy
that wait on the Lord shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with
wings Ol eagles" Even 50 the Chris.
tian in old age will IT ne W his spiritual
strength. He shall b. young in ardor
and enthusiasm for Christ, and as the
body fails the soul Will grow in elastic
lty till At death it will spring up like a
gladdened child into the bosom of God.
| Wan in fhto nrnit hnl OF I