Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-10-22

DR.. TALMAGE CONSIDERS THE SOuTR-
WARD FLIGHT OF TIE BIRDS.

They Know When TO Start-They Ely T.is,l
and Call on All Their Kind to Go
with Them, but Men Have Not This
Wisdom.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 21.-Rev. DE-. T'al-
mage, who has left India and is now OF
his homeward journey, has selected as
the subjecs for his sermon today through
che press October Thoughts, y his text
being jeremiah viii, z, 1.-The storll in
the heaven knoweth her appointed time,
and the turtle, and the crane, and the
swallow observe the time Of their COM
ing, but my people know not the judg
meut OF the Lord. "
When God would set fast beautiful
thought, he plants it in tree. When
he would put it afoat he fashions it
into n fish. When he would have it
glide the air, he molds it into q bird.
NY 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
its nest over the doorway; the sweet
dispositioned turtledove, mingling in
color white and black and brown and
ashen and chestnut; the crane, with
voice like the clang of trumpet; the
swallow, swift as q dart shot out of the
bow of heaven, falling, mounting,
skinEiing, sailing-fOur birds started
by the prophet 20 centuries ago, yet fly.
ing on through the ages, with rOusing
truth under glossy wing and in the
clutch of stout claw. I suppose it may
have been this very season Of the year.
autumn-and the prophet out Of doors,
thinking of the impenitence Of the peo-
pie of his day, hears n great CRY over
head
a Sublime Lesson.
Now, you know it is no easy thing
for one with ordinary delicacy of eye
sight to look into the deep blue of noon
day heaven, but the prophet looks up.
and there are fiocks of storks and turtle
doves and cranes and swallows drawn
out III long lines for flight southwark.
AS is their habit, the cranes had ar
ranged themselves in two lines, making
an angle, wedge splitting the air with
wild velocity, the old crane, with COM
manding call, bidding them onward,
while the towns, and the cities, and the
continents slid under them. The
prophet, almost blinded from looking
into the dazzling heavens, 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 stork 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. -
If you were in the field today, i'll the
clump of trees at the corner Of the field,
you would see q convention ca birds,
noisy as the American congress the last
night before adjournment or as the
English parliament when some unfor
tunate nleraber proposes more economy
i'll the queens household, a convention
of birds all talking at once, moving and
passing resolutions on the subject Of
migration, some proposing to 60 to-
morrow, some moving that they go to-
day, but all unanimous in the fact that
they must go soon, for they have march
ing orders from the Lord written on the
first white sheet Of the frost and in the
pictorial of the changing leaves
Mansions Ready For Them.
There is not belted kingfsker, or =
chaffinch, or q fire crested wren. or "a
plover, or red legged partridge but OK.
poets to spend the winter at the sGut1,
for the apartments have already been
ordered for them i'll South America or
in Africa, and after thousands of miles
of flight they will stop in the very tree
where they spent last January. Fare
we'll, bright plumage! Until spring
weather, away! Fly on, great band OF
heavenly musicians! Strew the CONT
nents with music, and, whether from
CeylOn isle, or Carolinian swa1nps, or
Brazilian groves men see your wings or
hear your voice, may they yet bethinh
themselves of the solemn words Of the
text, 1.-The stork 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. !"
i 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
1 begin by particularizing and saying
that they mingle music with their work.
The most serious undertaking of birds
life is this annual flight southwark
Naturalists tell US that they arrive thin
and weary and plumage ruffied, and yet
they gosinging 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. I
suppose their song gives elasticity to
their wing and helps on with the jour
ney, dwindling 1000 miles into 400
Would God that we were as wise as they
in mingling Christian song with our ev-
eryday work! [ believe there is such q;
thing as taking the pitch of Christian