The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-06-19

sermon the loving care of God in dealing with his children and the way in which he fits them for the battle of life are graphically described under the simili- .tude of the eagle and it's young. The
 text is Deuteronomy xxxii, II, As the
 eagle stirreth up her nest"
 The war goddess has crowned the eagle
 monarch of the air His throne is the inaccessible cliff. his diadem the
 noontide sun. his footstool the morning
 clouds, his playground the vast expanse
 of infinite space. His keenness of eye,
 boldness of flight sharpness of claw,
 merciless destructiveness of beak, cause
 him to be dreaded in mountainous lands,
 as the huge jaws and powerful claws
 of the lion cause him to be dreaded in
 the African forests.
 But, though the eagle has been called
 the monarch of the air. as the lion has
 been called the monarch of the fields
 yet the eagle, like the lion, never had
 royal pedigree. By that word royal"
 I mean a noble, brave and fearless an-
 cestry. The eagle is not of heroic mold.
 He is a cringing, fawning, contemptible
 coward. Though he Is a raptorial bird
 and loves to banquet off the quivering
 flesh of newly slain carcass the blood
 which flows through his own arteries Is
 pumped from a craven heart. In terror
 this mighty winged f1ier will fee before
 the little kingbird, hardly larger than a
 bedwarfed English sparrow. Confined in
 a cage with a small barnyard fowl. the
 domestic bird has been known to make
 the eagle beg for mercy as a school yard
 bully will whine before an outraged
 youth half his size.
 Many regulations are undeserved al-
 together" once wrote an observant
 naturalist. Let us not In this connec-
 tion trouble now about statesmen. poets
 or authors, but take from natural his
 tory a familiar Illustration, that of the eagle. The great strength of the eagle
 enables 1t to prey upon creatures that
 have no power of defending themselves
 from his terrible swoop, but we must not
 allow ourselves on this account as our
 fathers did, to magnify him into type of magnanimity and courage. In true courage he Is not superior to most of the smaller hawks. and certainly inferior to the falcons, hich will drive away this so called monarch of the air when he approaches too near their nests. So that, really, when we remember what fame the eagle has always had for magnan- imity and for courage, 1t is obvious, in view of the facts, that he like many other birds and men, has obtained
 reputation which is undeserved.
 EaqIe Protects Ills Young.
 But. though the eagle is cowardly
 bird in reference to his own life no sooner does he become a parent than he Is transformed into a daring, valiant protector of his young. No sooner are the dull white colored eggs deposited in
 the nest which the twain have builded
 upon the tops of the dizzy heights, or
 upon the ledge of a precipice, than the
 parent birds are ready to protect those nests at any cost. I remember years ago seeing a powerful picture called ''The One Strand" A mountaneer of the far off northeast had been lowered over the
 side of cliff to rob an eagles nest of
 it's eggs. No sooner was he lowered by
 rope over the cliff and dangling in mid air. with the surging sea hundreds of feet beneath him beating it's waves upon
 the jagged rocks than the father and mothers birds saw the would be destroy
 CT of their home They started for their enemy Aye, it was a royal battle-a battle for life, The eagles were circing about his head. The sturdy mountaineer was swinging his knife round and round l over his head But once he swung the | knife too far. The keen edge of the l blade cut the rope all but one strand. l With horror stricken eyes he saw that l strand gradually unraveling. The whole scene was so realistically portrayed that I could almost hear the triumphant screams of the parental birds as their | human enemy was about to be dasheu upon the rocks below.
 | Yes, yes; parental affection transforms I the craven bird into a fierce, intrepid l champion, capable of sublime self sacrl- | fee in defense of its offspring. Yet in l our text we find him, in spite of that | tender affection. disturbing the young birds and turning them out of their home. | What does the Bible mean by comparing | this strange conduct with Gods provi- | dential dealing? Why does God, as | loving Father, treat his children in this l seemingly rough way as the eagle bird | pushes her offspring? For you must re- 1 member that we do not have to go en- | tirely to this figure of the eagle bird to ] be taught the lessons of that Gods hand l sometimes smites loving blow as well as gives loving caress. In the epistle l 10 the Hebrews we are taught that l reinstatement is one of the proofs God 1 gives us of his affection. Whom the l Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scour- geth every son who he receiveth. In 1 his famous sermon upon the mount l Christ says ther is blessing in falling tears and in prosecutions and in heart- 1 aches and in all afflicton as well as in smiles and perpetual sunshine and iri- descent joys.
 Work Makes Character.
 1 First God, like the parental eagle, | stirs up our nests in order that we
 may learn how to dependy upon our 1 selves as well as upon him. He plunges us Into the abyss of trouble in order that we, as fedgelings, may learn 1 to fly on and up. He tumbles us down
 so that we may soar higher than the | cliffs upon which we were born, higher
 than the mountains upon whose bald heads are frozen amid perpetual snows, | and higher than even the morning clouds that have lowered over us in
 many benedictions He treats us just as
 a true parent should always treat his child. Some few weeks ago I was visit | ing upon the ranch of a wealthy man
 in California. He turned and said to me: I "No young man ever amounts to any | thing unless he is compelled to work for his own mental and physical and spiritual l development. So firmly do l believe 1t | is the mountain upon the man and not the man upon the mountain that brings man | to the highest development for which God l intended him that I have compelled my 1 boys to work for every cent they have
 received, even when they were little
 children. I never give them anything