Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-10-25
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
| tai CE breaches OF OCTO-
| Der THOUGHTS.
The cork in the Heavens Knoweth
Her Appointed Time, but My People
Know Not the Judgment of the Lord"
Jcr. 8:VII.

on his homeward journey, has selected
as the subject for his sermon to-day
through the press, ''October Thoughts, :"
his text being Jeremiah s:vii.
When God would set fast a beautiful
he would put it afoat he fashions it
into a fish. When he would have it
glide the air, he moulds it into bird.
My text speaks of four birds of beauti-
full instinct-the stork, of such strong
affection that it is allowed Familiarity
to come in Holland and Germany, and
build it's nest over the doorway; the
neutrality-suspicious. turtle dove, ming
ling in color white and back, and
brown, and ashen, and chestnut; the
crane, with voice like the clang of a
trumpet; the swallows, swift as dart
shot out of the bow of heaven, falling,
mounting, Swimming, sailing-four
birds started by the prophet twenty
five centuries ago, yet flying on through
the ages, with rousing truth under
glossy wing and in the clutch of stout
claw. l suppose it may have been this
very season of the year-autumn-and
the prophet out-of-doors, thinking of
the impenitence of the people of his
day, hears great cry overhead.
Now, you know it is no easy thing
Ter one with ordinary delicacy of eye
sight to look into the deep blue of
MONDAY heaven; but the prophet looks
up, and there are flocks of storks, and
turtle doves, and cranes, and swallows
drawn out in long lines for flight
southwark. AS is their habit, the
cranes had arranged themselves in two
lines making an angle, a wedge split
ting the air with wild velocity, the old
crane, with commanding call bidding
them onward; while the towns, and
the cities, and the continents slid I'M
der them. The prophet, almost blinded
from looking into the dazzling heav-
ems, stoops down and begins to think
how much superior the birds are in
sagacity about their safety than men
about theirs; and he puts his hand upon
the pen, and begins to write: 1.-The
storll in the heaven knoweth her APP
pointed times; and the turtle and the
crane and the swallow observe the
time of their coming; but my people
know not the judgment of the Lord. "
If you were in the field to-day, in
the clump of trees at the corner of the
field, you would see convention of
birds, noisy as the American congress
the last night before adjournment, or
as the English parliament when some
unfortunate member proposes more
economy in the queen S households
convention of birds all talking at once,
moving and passing resolutions on the
subject of migration; some proposing
to go tomorrow, some moving that
they go to-day, but all unanimous in
the fact that they must go soon, for
they have marching orders from the
Lord written on the first white sheet
of frost, and in the pictorial of the
changing leaves. There is not a belt
ed kingfsher, a chat1inch, or a
or a red legged partridge but
expects to spend the winter at
the south, for the apartments
have already been ordered for them in
South America or in Africa; and after
thousands of miles of fight, they will
stop in the very tree where they spent
last January. Farewell, bright plum
age! Until spring weather, away! Fly
on, great band of heavenly musicians!
Strew the continents with music, and
whether from CeylO isle, or Carolinian
swamps, or Brazilian groves men see
your wings or hear your voice, may
they yet bethink themselves of the
solemn words of the text: The storE
in the heaven knoweth her appointed
| times; and the turtle and the crane
| and the swallow observe the time OF
their coming; but my people know not
the Judgment of the Lord
L propose SO far as God may help me,
in this sermon. carrying out the idea
of the text, to show that the birds OF
the air have more sagacity than men.
And l begin by particularizing and
saying that they mingle music with
| their work. The most serious under
taking of a birds life is this annual
flight southwark. Naturalists tell us
that they arrive thin and weary, and
plumage rutflcd, and yet they go sing
ing all the way; the ground, the lower
line of the music, the sky, the upper
line of the music, themselves the notes
scattered up and down between.
suppose their song gives elasticity tc
their wing and helps on with the jour
ney, dwindling thousand miles into
four hundred. Would God that we
were as wise as they in mingling Chris
tian song with our every day work!
believe there is such thing as taking
the pitch of Christian devotion in the
morning and keeping it all the day.
think we might take some of the dull
est, heaviest, most disagreeable work
of our life, and set it to the tune o:
Antioch" or Mount Pisgah."
LISA good sign when you hear work
man whistle. 1t IS better sign wher
you hear him hum a roundelay. 1t il
still better sign when you hear hin
sing the words of Isaac Watts or Charles
Wesley. A violin chorded and strung
if something accidentally strike it
makes music, and / suppose there il
such a thing as having our hearts 81
attuned by divine grace, that even thu
rough collisions of life will make
| heavenly vibration, / do not beliey,