The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-03-04
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49,
mage to show the comfort and protec-
ton that heaven affords to all trusting
souls. The ext is Matthew xiii, 81,
Even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and We would not"
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ
came TO the crest of Mount Olivet, a
height of 100 feet. The splendors of
the religious capital of the whole earth
irradiated the landscape. There is the
temple. Yonder is the kings palace.
Spread out before his eyes are the
pomp, the wealth, the wickedness and
the coming destruction of Jerusalem,
and he bursts into tears at the thought
of the obduracy of a place that he
would gladly have saved and apostro-
phizes, saying. 80 Jerusalem, Jeru-
salem, how often would l have gath
cred thy children together, ever as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and We would notr'
Why did Christ select hen and chick
ems IS a smile? Next to the opposite
ness Of the comparison, l think it was
TO help all public teachers in the mat
ter OF illustration to get down off their
stills and use comparisons that all can
understand. The plainest bird on earth
IS the barnyard fowl. Its only adorn-
mentS are the red comb in its head
dress and the wattles under the throat.
1t has no grandeur of genealogy. All
we know is that its ancestors came
from India, some of them from q
height of 1000 feet on the sides of the
Himalayas. 1t has no pretension of
nest like the eagles eyrie. 1t has no
Iuster of plumage like the %goldfnch.
Possessing anatomy that allows flight,
yet about the last thing it wants to do
is to fly, and in retreat uses foot al
most as much as wing. Musicians nave
written out in musical scale the song
of lark and robin redbreast and night
ingale, yet the hen of my text hath
nothing that could be taken for a song,
but only cluck and cackle. Yet Christ
in the text uttered while looking upon
doomed Jerusalem declares that what
he had wished for that city was like
what the hen does for her chickens.
Chrfxt's Simple Teachings.
Christ was thus simple in his teach
ings. and yet how hard it is for us who
are Sunday school instructors and ed
itors and preachers and reformers and
those who would gain the ears of audi
ences to attain hat heavenly and di-
vine art of simplicity, We have to run
a course of literary disorders as chill
dren q course of physical disorders.
We come out of school and college
soaded down with Greek mythOlogies
and out of the theological seminary
weighed down with what the learned
fathers said. and we fly with wings of
eagles and fiamingoeS and albatrOSSeS,
and it takes II good while before we
can come down TO Christ's similitudes,
the candle under the bushel. the salt
thai has lost it's SAVIOR. the net thrown
into the sea. the spittle ON the eyes of
the blind man and the hen and chick
ems.
There is not much poetry about this
winged creature of God mentioned in
my text. but she is more practical and
more motherly and more suggestive of
good things than many that fly higher
and wear brighter colorS. She is not a
prima donna of the skies nor n strut of
beauty in the aisle of the forest. She
does not cut a circle under the sun like
the Rocky mountain eagle. but stays
at home to look after family affairs.
She does not swoop like the condor of
the cordilleras to transport a rabbit
from the valley to the top of b crags,
but just scratches for a living.
1 am in warm sympathy with the un-
~pretentious old fashioned hen because.
like most of US, she has to scratch for
a living. She knows at the start the
lesson which most people Of good sense
are slow to learn-that the gaining Of a
livelihood implies work and that sue
eesses do not lie on the surface, but are
to be upturned by positive and contin-
uous effort. The reason that society
and the church and the world are SO
full of failures. so full of loafers. so
full Of deadbeats is because people
are not wise enough to TAX the lesson
which any hen would teach them that
if they would find for themselves and
for those dependent Upon them n y
thing worth having they much scratch
for it. Solomon said. G to the ant,
thou sluggard." ] say, Go to the hen,
thou ~sluggard. In the Old Testament
God compares himself to an eagle stir
ring up her nest. and in the New Tesla
ment the Holy Spirit is compared to a
descending dove, but Christ in a SER
mon that began with cutting sarcasm
for hypocrites and ends with the parox-
ysm of pathos in the text compares
himself to q hen.
Hawks of Temptation.
One day in the country we saw sud
den CONSERVATION in the behavior OF
old Dominick. Why the hen should be
so disturbed we could not understand.
We looked about to see if a ~neighbors
dog were invading the farm. We look
ed up to see if a stormcloud were o v
ering. We could see nothing on the
ground that could terrorize, and we