Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-03-06


illustration from the barnyard is en-
ployed in this discourse by DR.. Tai.
mage to show the comfort and protec.
ton that heaven affords to all trusting
souls. The text is Matthew xiii, 81,
Even as hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not"
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ
came to the crest Of Mount Olivet, n
height of 700 feet. The splendors of
the religious capital of the whole earth
irradated 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. 20 Jerusalem, Jeru-
salem, how often would I have gath
cred thy children together, even as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would Dot!
Why did Christ select hen and chick
ems as smile? Next to the Apostle
ness Of the comparison, l think 1t vas
to help oil 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 a
height of 1000 feet on the sides Of the
IIimalayas. 1t has no pretensiOn Of
nest like the eagles eyrie. 1t has no
luster Of plumage like the goldfinch.
Possessing anatomy that allows flight,
yet about the last thing 1t wants to do
is to fly, and in retreat uses foot al
most as much rs wing. Musicians have
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 cacklc. 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.
Christ'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 that heavenly and di-
vine art Of simplicity! We have to run
course Of literary disorders as chill
dren n course Of physical disorders.
We come out Of school and college
loaded 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 f1amlngoes and albatrosses,
and it takes good while before we
can come down to Christ's smilitudes,
the candle under the bushel. the salt
that has lost its 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 praRtical and
more motherly and more suggestive Of
good things than many that fly higher
and wear brighter colors. She is not q
prima donna of the skies nor strut of
beauty in the aisle Of the forest. She
does not cut 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 cordlleras to transport a rabbit
from the valley to the top of the crags,
but just scratches for living.
am in warm sympathy with the un-
pretentious old fashioned hen because,
like most of us, she has to scratch for
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
cesses 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 take the lesson
which any hen would teach them that
II they would find for themselves and
for those dependent upon them any
thing worth having they much scratch
for 1t. Solomon said, go 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 ser
, mon that began with cutting sarcasm
for hypocrites and ends with the parox
ysm Of pathos in the text compares
himself to hen.
; Hawks of Temptation.
!, One day in the country we saw sud
r den CONSERVATION In the behavior OF
old Dominick. Why the hen should bt
r so disturbed we could not understand
We looked about to see IL a neighbor'i
: dog were invading the farm. We look
, ed up to see If stormcloud were how
ering. We could see nothing on thu
= ground that could terrorize, and W.
could see nothing in the air to rufti'
the feathers Of the hen, but the loud
? wild, affrighted cluck which brough
all her brood ut full run under hel
r feathers made us look again arount
. and above us, when we say that higl
up and far away there was n rapaciou,