The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1902-03-14

away there was rapacious bird
wheeling round and round and down
ana down, and, not seeing us as we
stood in the shadow, it came nearer
and lower until we saw its beak was
curved from base to tip and 1t haa
two flames of fire for eyes and 1T
was hawk. But all the chickens
were under old Dominick's wings, and
either the bird of prey caught
glimpse of us or, not able TO nno
the brood huddled under her wing
darted back into the clouds. 30
Christ calls with great earnestness
to all the young. Why, what is the
matter? 1t is bright sunlight, and
there can be no danger. Health Is
theirs. A good home is theirs.
Plenty of food is theirs. Prospect OF
long life is theirs. But Christ con-
tinues to call, calls with more en-
phasis and urges haste and says not
a second ought to be lost. On 40
fell us what is the matter. An, now
7 see: there are hawks of temptation
in the air, there are vultures wheel
ing for their prey, there are beaks OF
death ready to plunge, there are
claws of allurement ready to Gluten.
Now I see the peril. Now l under
stand the urgency. Now see the
only safety. Would that Christ
might this day take our sons ana
daughters into his shelter "as hen
gathereth her chickens under hef
wing"
The fact is that the most of them
will never mind the shelter unless
while they are chickens. 1t is SIM
pIe matter of memorable STATISTICS
that most of those who do not come
to Christ in youth never come at all.
What chance is there for the young
without divine protection? Ihere
are the grogshops, there are tne
gambling hells, there are the linden
ties and immoralities of spiritualism,
there are the bad books, there are
the impurities, there are the pusi-
ness rascalities, and so numerous are
these assailants that it is wonder
that honesty and virtue are not lost
arts. The birds of prey, diurnal ana
nocturnal, of the natural world are
ever on the alert. They are the as
sassins of the sky; they have varle-
ties of taste. The eagle prefers the
flesh of the living animal; the vulture
prefers the carcass; the falcon Kills
with one stroke, while other styles
of beak give .prolongation of torture.
But we all need the protecting
wing. If you had known when you
entered upon manhood or woman
hood what was ahead of you, would
YOU have dared to undertake LIE!
How much you have been through!
With most life has been disappoint-
ment. They tell me SO. They have
not attained that which they expect
ed to attain. They have not had the
physical and mental vigor they ex-
pected or they have met with rebuffs
which they did not anticipate. You
are not at 40 or so or 60 or 70 or
so years of age where you thought
YOU would be. L do not know any
one except myself to whom life has
been happy surprise. l never ex-
pected anything, and so when any
thing came in the shape of human
favor or comfortable position or wild
ening field of work it was to me sur
prise. was told in the theological
seminary by some of my fellow-stu-
dents that I never would get any
body to hear me preach unless l
changed my style, SO that when l
found that some people did come to
hear me it was a happy surprise.
But most people, according to their
own statement, have found life dis
appointment Indeed, we all need
shelter from it's tempests.
The wings of my text suggest
warmth, and that is what most folks
want. The fact is that this is cold
world whether you take it literally OF
figuratively. We have a big fireplace
called the sun, and it has very hot
fire, and the stokers keep the Goals well
stirred up, but much of the year we
cannot get near enough to this fire
place to get warmed. The worlds ex'
tremities are cold all the time. For
get not that it is colder at the south
pole than at the north pole and thai
the arctic is not so destructive as thu
antarctic. Once in awhile the arctic
will let explorers come back, but thu
antarctic hardly ever. When at thu
south pole ship sails in, the door OF ic'
is almost sure to be shut against 1T
return. So life to many millions o
people at the south and many millions
of people at the north is prolonge'
SILVER. But when say that this is
cold world I chiefly mean figuratively