The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1898-03-03

DH<l6N n kXl CAVoAe ntS U''r~s oso
~%AlI pasture grounds
" ~% and focks. The
NN text Is Psalms xxiii.
"a /. The Lord is my
shepherd"
What with post and rail fences and
our pride in SOuthdOwn, Astrakham
our pride In SOuthdown, Astrakhan
and Flemish varieties Of sheep, there
is no use now Of the old time shep-
herd. Such q one had abundance Of
opportunity Of becoming a poet, being
out Of doors IL hours the day, and oft
times waking up In the night on the
hills. II the stars or the torrents or
the sun or the flowers had anything
to say, he was very apt to hear 1t. The
Ettrick Shepherd Of Scotland, who af-
terward took his seat In the brilliant
circle Of Wilson and Lockhart, got his
wonderful poetic inspiration In the ten
years in which he was watching the
f1ocks Of Mr.. Laidlaw. There is often
a sweet poetry in the rugged prose
Of the Scotch shepherd. One Of these
Scotch shepherds lost his only son,
and he knelt down In prayer and was
overheard to say, 20 Lord, 1t has
seemed good in thy providence to take
Of the Scotch shepherd. One Of these
the time when to us sand blind NOR
tails l seemed to be most in need of 1t,
and how shall climb up the hill Of
sorrow and aud age without 1t thou
mayst ken, but dinna."
David, the shepherd boy, Is watching
from me the staff of my right hand at
on the very hills where afterward a
Lamb was born of which you have
his fathers sheep. They are pasturing
heard much, 1.-The Lamb of God, which
vid, the shepherd boy, was beautiful,
brave, musical and poetic. I think he
often forgot the sheep in his reveries.
There in the solitude he struck the
harp string that is thrilling through all
ages. David the boy was gathering
the material for David the poet and
David the man. Like other boys, Da-
vid was fond of using his knife among
the saplings. and he had noticed the
exuding of the juice Of the tree, and
when he became man he said. "The
trees of the Lord are full of sap" Da-
vid the boy, like other boys, had been
fond of hunting the birds nests. and
he had driven the old stork of the
nest TO find how many eggs were un-
eth the kinds to calve." David the boy
said, "As for the stork. the fir trees
are her house" In boyhood he had
heard the terrific thunderstorm that
frightened the red deer into premature
sickness, and when he became man
he said, "The voice of the Lord Max
eth the binds to calve." David the boy
had lain upon his back looking up at
the stars and examining the sky, and
TO his boylsh Imagination the sky
seemed like Il piece of divine embroid-
cry. the divine fingers working in the
threads Of light and the beads of stars,
and he became man and wrote,
"When ] consider thy heavens, the
work of thy fingers" When he be-
came an old man, thinking of The good
ness of God, he seemed to hear the
blcating of his fathers sheep across
many years and to think OF the time
when he tended them on the Bethle-
hem hills. and he cries out in the text,
"'rhe Lord is my shepherd"
If God will help me- | will talk to
you of the shepherds plaid, the shep-
herds crook. the shepherds dogs, the
shepherds pasture grounds, and the
shepherds floCks.
And first the shepherds plaid. 1t
would he preposterous for n man go
ing out TO rough and bcsoiling work
to put on splendid apparel. The pot
ter does not work in velvet. The
servant maid does not put on satin
when toiling at her duties. The shep-
herd does not Wear splendid robe
in which to 20 out amid storms, and
the rocks and the ncttles; he puts on
the rough apparel appropriate to his
'Nl'H'' WV h' isoli oui
herd, coming out to hunt the lost
sheep. put on no regal apparel, but the
plain garment of our humanity. There
was nothing pretcntious about it. |
know the old painters represent halo
around the babe Jesus, but / do not
suppose that there was any more halo
about that child than about the head
of any other babe that was born that
Christmas eve in Judaea. Becoming
II man, he wore n seamless garment.
The scissors and needle had done
nothing to make 1t graceful. l take
1t to have been sack with three holes
in it, one for the neck and two for the
arms. Although the gamblers quar-.
relied over it, that is no evidence that
relied over it, that Is no evidence of its
value. l have seen two ragpickers
quarrel over the refuse OF an ash bar.
rel. No; in the wardrobe of heaven he
left the sandals of light, the girdles
of beauty, the robes of power, and pu,
on the besOiled and tattered raimcnt