The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-10-26
AUTUMNAL LESSONS.
DIR. TALMAGE CONSIDERS THE SOUTH
WARD FLIGHT OF THE BIRDS.

They Know When to Start-They Fly High
and Call on All Their Kind to &C
with Them, but Men Have Not Thi,
Wisdom.
BROOKLYN, Oct 21.-Rev. Dr. Tai.
mage, who has left India and is now on
his homeward Journey, has selected as
the subject for his sermon today through
the press October Thoughts, " his text
being Jeremiah viii, 7, 1.-THE stork 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-
ment of the Lord. "
When God would set fast beautiful
thought, he plants it in tree. When
he would put it afloat, he fashions it
into a fish. When he would have it
glide the air, he molds 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
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 a trumpet; the
swallow, swift as dart shot out of the
bow of heaven, falling, mounting,
skimming, sailing-four birds started
by the prophet 25 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 a 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 tlocks of storks and turtle
doves and cranes and swallows drawn
out in long lines for flight southwark
AS is their habit, the cranes had ar
ranged themselves in two lines, making
an angle, a wedge splitting the air with
wild velocity, the old crane, with COM
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 We're in the field today, in the
clump of trees at the corner of the field,
you would see a convention ca birds, |
noisy as the American congress the last |
night before adjournment or as the !
English parliament when some unfor- |
tunate member proposes more economy |
In the queens household, a convention
of birds all talking at once moving and |
passing resolutions on the subject of
migration, some proposing to go to-
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 i'll the
pictorial of the changing leaves.
Mansions Ready For Them.
There is not belted kingfisher, or a
,haffinch, or a fire crested wren, or
plover, or a red legged partridge but ex.
poets to spend the winter at the south,
for the apartments have already been
ordered for them in South America or
N Africa, and after thousands of miles
If flight they will stop in the very tree
where they spent last January. Fare
well, bright plumagel Until spring
weather, away! Fly on, great band of
musicians Strew the CONT
1ents with music, and whether from
Ceylon isle, or Carolinian swamps, or
Brazilian groves men see your wings or
near your voice, may they yet bethink
themselves of the solemn words of the
text, 'The stork in the heaven knoweth
ner 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. a."
propose so far as God may help me
in this sermon carrying out the idea of
,he text to show that the birds of the
MIR have more sagacity than men. And
begin by particularizing and saying
hat they mingle music with their work.
The most serious undertaking of birds
life is this annual flight southwark.
tell us that they arrive thin
md weary and plumage ruff1ed, and yet
hey go singing all the way, the ground
he 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 to
heir wing and helps ON with the jour
ley, dwindling 1000 miles into 400.
Would God that we were as wise as they
n mingling Christian song with our ev-
'ryday work. l believe there is such a
hing as taking the pitch of Christian
devotion in the morning and keeping it
III the day. think we might take some
# the dullest, heaviest, most disagree