The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-09

bars and moaned for them to be let I down that they might come homeg to shelter. and the fowl, whether dark Brah- ma or Hamburg or Leghorn or Dominick. began to call to its young, Cluck, cluck, cluck!" and take them under the wagon house or shed and had them all hid un- der the soft feathers by the, time that the first splash of rain struck the roof. So there are sudden tempests for our souls. and. oh, how dark it gets, and threatening clouds of bankruptcy or sick ness or persecution or bereavement gath
 CT and thicken and blacken. and some run for shelter to a bank, but it Is poor
 safety, and others run to friendly ad-
 visers. and they fail to help, and others
 fly nowhere simply because they know not where to go. and they perish in the
 blast, but others hear, divine call say
 ing, Come. for all things are now ready"
 The spirit and the bride say come."
 Need of Warmth.
 The wings of my text suggest warmth,
 and that is what most folks want. The
 fact is that this is a cold world whether
 you take it literally or tiguratively. We
 have 8 big fireplace called the sun. and
 it has very hot fire. and the stokers
 keep the fire we'll stirred up. but much of the year We cannot get near enough
 to this fireplace to get warmed. The
 worlds extremities are cold all the time.
 Forget not that 1t is colder at the south, pole than at the north pole and that the
 arctic is not so destructive as the ant.
 arctic. Once in awhile the arctic will
 let explorers come back, but the antarc
 tic hardly ever. When at the south pole
 ship sails in, the door of ice Is almost sure to be shut against its return. So
 life to many millions of people at the
 south and many millions of people at the
 north is a prolonged shiver. But when I
 say that this is a cold world I chiefly
 mean figuratively. If you want to know of receiving the ''cold shoulder" get out of money and try to borrow. The con versation may have been almost tropical for luxuriance of speech, but suggest your necessities and see the thermome- ter drop to 50 degrees below zero. and in that which till a moment below had been a warm room. Take what Is an unpopular position on some public ques- ton and see your friends fly as chaff be- fore a windmill. As far as myself is con- cerned. I have no word of complaint, but
 I look off day by day and see commu- mites freezing out men and women or whom the world is not worthy. Now it
 takes after one and now after another.
 It becomes popular to depreciate and de-
 fame and execrate and lie about some
 people. This Is the best world I ever
 got into, but 1t is the meaneSt world
 that some people ever get into. The
 worst thing that ever happened to them was their cradle, and the best thing that
 will ever happen to them will be their
 grave.
 What people want is warmth. Many years ago a man was floating down on |. the ice of the Merrimac, and great eff forts were made to rescue him. Twice he got hold of plank thrown to him and twice he slipped away from 1t, because that end of the plank was covered with ice, and he cried out, For Gods sake give me the wooden end of the plank |. this time!' and, this done, he was hauled to shore. The trouble Is that in our et- forts to save the soul there are too much | coldness and icy forma!ity, and so the | imperiled one slips off and floats down. Give 1t the other end of the plank; warmth of sympathy, warmth of kindly association. warmth of genial surround l ings. The world declines to give 1t and | In many cases has no power to give it, | and here is where Christ comes in. and | as on cold day, the rain beating and | the atmosphere full of sleet, the hen 1 clucks her chickens under her wings, | and the warmth of her own breast puts 1 warmth into the wet feathers and the | chilled feet of the infant group of the | barny ard. so Christ says to those sick
 and frosted aI.s disgusted and frozen of | the world: Come in out of the March
 winds of the worlds cpticism. come in | out of the slset of the worlds assault.
 come in out of a world that does not un- | derstand you and does not want to un-
 derstand you l will comfort, and will
 soothe, and will be your warmth. as
 hen gatheretii her chickens under her
 wing .. Or, the warm heart of God is
 ready for al! those te whom the world
 has given the colo shoulder.
 | Christ Takes the Storm.
 | Bat notice that some one must take the | storm Tor thL chickens. An. the hen takes
 the storm. have watched her under the psttIng rain. l have seen her in the l pilching trCsts, Almost frozen to death
 or almost strangled in the waters. and
 what fight she makes for the young under wing if dog or hawk or a l man came too near! And so the brood | ing Christ takes the storm for us. What | flood ot anguish and tears that did not 1 dash upon His holy soul? What beak of torture did not pierce His vitals? | What barking Cerberus of hell was not
 let ous upon him from the kennels? Yes, | the hen takes the storm for the chickens, | and Christ takes the storm for us. Once | the tempest rose so suddenly the hen | could not get with her young back from
 the new ground to the barn. and there | she is under the fence half dead. And | now the rain turns to snow. and it Is an | awful night, and in the morning the
 whiteness about the gilis and the beak l down in the mud show that the mother | is dead and the young ones come out | and cannot understand why the mother | does not scratch for them something to
 eat. and they walk over her wings and | cali with their tiny voices, but there is | no answering chuck. She took the storm
 for others and perished. Poor thing. Self sacrificing even unto death! And | does 1t not make you think of Him who | endured all for us? So the wings under
 which we come for spiritual safety are | hlood spattered wings. are night shad- l owed wings, are tempest torn wings. In
 the Isle of Wight | saw the grave of Princess Elizabeth. who died while | prisoner at Carisbrook castle, her finger | on an open Bible and pointing to the | words, Come unto me all ye that labor | and are heavy laden. and ! will give you rest" Oh, come under the wings! But now the summer day is almost past. | and the shadows of the house and barn | and wagon shed have heightened. The | farmer with scythe or hoe on shoulder. are unyoked. The horses are crunchins | the oats at the full bin. The air is be- | witched of honeysuckle and wild brier. | The miIkman, pail in hand. Is approach | ing the barnyard. The fowls. keeping early hours. are collecting their young. | ''Cluck" "Cluckr' Cluck?' And soon | all the eyes of that feathered nursery | are closed The bachelors of the winged | tribe have ascended to their perch. but | the hens, in a motherhood divinely ap- | pointed, take all the risks of slumber | on the ground. and all night long the wings will stay outspread. and the httle | ones will not utter sound. Thus al sundown, lovingly, safely, completely, the | hen broods her young. So, if we are the Lords the evening of our life will come. The heats of the day will have passed. ! There will be shadows, and we cannot | see as far The work of life will be about ended. The hawks of temptation that hovered in the sky have gone to the woods and folded their wings. Sweet silences will come. The air will be redo lent with the breath of whole arbors of promises sweeter than jasmine or even ing primrose. The air may be- a little chill, but Christ will call us, and we vii.
 know the voice and heed the call, and we will come under the wings for the niQbt the strong wings the soft wings