The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-08

the divine interposition led them fortl
 and bore them on safety. The care o
 the mother eagle for her young and th'
 way in which she teaches them to fl!
 by breaking up the nest and catching
 the young upon her wings is graphic ally described as illustrating Gods care for His people. A familiar description pictures such a scene as witnessed by a travelled in the great canyon of Col
 orado, where the eagles nest was nearly
 a mile above the stream below, high
 up on the rocky side of the ravine, and
 where the young birds were allowed to fall a long distance before being over- l taken and borne up on the wings of the
 mother bird. During his forty years
 experience of life in the open air as a
 keeper of flocks and herds in a rough,
 wild country, Moses may many times
 have witnessed the occurrence which he
 so graphically described.
 The eagle is swift as we'll as strong. l A nation was to come against Israel | from afar 'as swift as the eagle fiieth,"
 "As the eagle that swoopeth on the prey" is the way in which the swift flight of the years near the close of
 life is described in the book of Job. In the same book is an accurate picture
 of the nesting habits of the eagle and
 of it's watching for it's prey from dis tance. We can almost see the nest far up on some rocky crag and the eagle
 looking forth with far-sighted, sharp eyed watchfulness. ',They shall mount up on wings of eagles" is the descrip- tion which the clear-visioned Isaiah the John of the Old Testament-gives of those who 'renew their strength by life of service and of faith. We have all known men, unhappily too rare, whose lives have approached, in beauty and in power, the upward soaring flight of the eagle.
 Our largest crows, the ravens, appear in the Bible in very interesting light. Theyfgure in the strange, dramatic story of Elijah as Gods messengers to bring food to the hungry prophet, Whatever mysteries may hang about this incident, there is no need of doubt ing it's truthfulness. The story is too strange and wonderful, too beautiful and significant. not to be true. It may, perhaps, be taken as a confirmation of the narrative that such kindly mention is made of the ravens in other parts of the Scripture. Thus in Job the ques- tion is asked, "Who providetth for the raven his food when his young ones cry unto God?" A question answered in the Psalms: "He giveth to the beast his food and to the young ravens which cry" Answered again by the great Teacher, Consider the ravens, for they neither SOW or reap, which neither have storehouses nor barn, and God feedeth them" How much higher and finer is this conception of the raven than that given us in Poe's raven! I
 Shakespeare makes Lavinia in "Titus Andronicus" use these words:
 Some say that ravens foster forlorn
 children,
 The whilst their own birds famish in
 their nests"
 It would be interesting to know if | this saying had any relation to the | Biblical story. Within a few days I | have been told on the best of authority | a story of a cat, bereaved by the drown Ing of it's lone kitten, adopting q family | of chickens and bringing to them bits of bread and meat from it's own supply | and then watching them lovingly while | they ate these gifts.
 But our smaller and more familiar birds are mentioned with equal honor. The S4th Psalm Is the song of the | sparrow and the swallow. These birds had then the same familiar and home owing character as now. They had the same habit of nesting about dwellings md other buildings. Even around the emple the sparrows found crevices in which to build their nests. How touch ng the lesson of trust which the spar ows teach in the New Testament Are lot five sparrows sold for two farthings Ind not one of them is forgotten before tod? Fear not, therefore; ye are of nore value than many sparrows."
 Sparrows are such cheerful birds. so ocial in their chirpings, that the call # one of them mourning for it's mate eems all the sadder for the contrast uch desolation is the cry: "I watch and m as a sparrow alone upon the house. op." The very joy of coming Spring Is in he Song of Solomon, For To, the Winter is past Is he rain is over and gone, he flowers appear on the earth, lle tifHe Ol lIle SllSlHS Ol the DlTuS IS
 come, II md the voice of the turtle is heard 1
 in our land"
 The migration of the birds is men, [ oned also in Jeremiah Yea, the stork ( l the heavens knoweth his appointed { mes and the turtle and the crane and z ne swallow observe the time of their i omin." A like reference is found in i le Book of Job: Doth the hawk soar I y Thy wisdom, and stretch out her ings toward the South?" The first art of this question plainly implies ( lat there is a mystery in flight be- \ ond our ready knowledge, as the Duke Argyll so fully admits in his discus z on of the flight of birds; and the lat g r clause, the picture of the hawk f retching out it's wings in the swift, - of the Fall migration, ay well be entrusted with Brown g's picture of hawks soaring for prey | gar their nest: ''What did I say?-that a small bird ngs
 All day long, save when brown pair Of hawks from the wood float with idle wings