The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-17

text IS Psalms xii, l, As the mart pant eth after the water brooks"
 What is the spring fever? What Is that tired feeling which creeps over one as the months of May and June draw near? What is that exhaustlng sensation which makes the hand sluggish at it's work and the brain dull as it tries to originate a thought and the legs heavy as lead when we get up in the mornings just preceding the summer? We vehemently deny the accusation that we are lazy We never have been lazy in our lives. We daily go to our office and begin work even little earlier than usual. We stay there longer than at any other time of the year. We wonder what ails us, and we go to the doctor to get tonic. The doctor tells us: You are bilious. Your liver is torpid Or he says: You are overworked and must let up." But deep down in our hearts we Know what is the matter. We have just the old longing for the woods. In the springtime 1t comes to us as naturally as the buds come to the flower gardens. It Is not medicine we want. but the mountain air, with the tree branch for a covering and the soft grass and the leaves for bed. Thus
 The ony cure TOT a man l knoW
 Is t git right out O tn town an go A,nere tn wir ducks swim an tn geese
 go by
 An tn trout an bass are a-jumpin' high. Tn on'y thing that'll cure i'm then Is t git away from his feller men
 An loaf all day by some lafin stream An fish an whistle an sing an dream An listen t birds an bugs an hear Tn voice O tn woods in his eager ear. But with most of us the longings must be repressed. We may. however give our thoughts a rest by dwelling on such a theme as I have chosen for this morn ing's treatment I said to myself: Prob ably there many with the same long ing so I will choose text that will car " our thoughts away to the woods and the waters" and as I thought this beau- tiful text of the psalmiSt sprang to my mind: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee God"
 Like Painting Harts.
 An, yes I said to myself. we are all like panting harts. We are like the hunt ed and the thirsty deer seeking the water brooks. And, strange to say, as soon as I uttered the text in my study wonder full peace came to my soul. I seemed 10 see the great gentle eyed stag and deer and fawn watching me from the thickets. I seemed to hear the birds singing their love ditties. I seemed to see the trout leapng out of the brooks. l seemed to see the great cliffs rising above the val leys and the baldheaded mountains. like grim and grizzly patriarchs, standing sentinel over all. Yes. I said to myself, for little while at least I can go An forgit that there's cities an houses
 an men,
 Forgit that Is got t go back agin, Forgit everythin' else in tn whole wide
 world
 But jes' God an tn birds an tn bugs
 an things
 That live right thar where tn wild
 stream sings.
 Goodby old city! We are about to leave you now. We are going to climb way up the mountains for a little while, and as we lie down upon the bank of a creek river by one of the beautiful deer licks we learn, in the first place that the hart is dependent upon the water brook for his physical existence He is not like the camel. that can store up his drinking water and carry it about with him for days: he is not like the lizard the rattlesnake or the horned toad or the Gla monster, that live in the desert week in and week out, month in and month out seemingly without water, or if they do get water, they must ab- sorb it from the bristling cactus, which grows everywhere around. But deer is like human being. Take water away from him, and he will die. Thus you
 
 the water brooks. He has two reasons for his dependence on the stream. First, he Is not a carnivorous animal. He does not live on flesh, but on herbs, and he must live where the water makes the grass spring up into life. In the next place he must himself be able at least once or twice a day to daintily step out of the woods, lift high his head to sniff for dangers and then gently move down and put his delicate lips Into the cool wa
  tain Is the deer to go to the waters to drink in the evening or the early morn- ing that if a man Is a lazy hunter and knows where the animals are accus- toned to drink all he has to do is to go there and hide.
 The Boa and the Deer.
 It Is bys recognizing the daily depend- enee of the deer upon water that in equa- torial America the huge and slow moving boa constructor is often able to have his feast of venison. Through the under brush we can see the monster serpent, nearly fifty feet in length. wriggling and twisting. He is on his way to the border of some lake stream. It is tending to- ward the evening hour, and he must hur- ry. He comes to a huge tree whose branches overarch the well beaten path which leads down to the deer lick. and he grips the tree and begins to climb up. Suddenly through the leaves are seen the tall antlerS or magnificent stag. He is Just ahead of the herd. He moves quiet 1y along until he comes under the out stretch branch. The head of the ser pent drops in a flash and winds itself about the quivering flesh. The stag at tempts to make leap forward, but the tail holds true. The spiral coils of the serpent begin to stiffen. the bones crack and the deer drops dead in his tracks. Thus, my friends. when you think of God providing the water brooks for the deer when they are chased by the hounds think. too. of the water brooks as the places of danger and death.
 But these water courses suggest an- other thought. What bountiful provision God has made for the wants of all crea- lures. How the forest teens with herb age for the hungry deer and water for him when he Is thirsty. Thus as God gives drink and food to the deer I find that he Is daily providing for our hunger and slaking our thirst. Would that we might all feel that as God is feeding the birds of the air and is making the grass of the fields to grow and is caring for the tmid deer of the forest and the prairies, go he is feeding and clothing us. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks for daily sustenance, may my heart pant after thee, O God.'
 But not alone for daily sustenance must the deer go to the water brooks. He must also run there for safety when the hounds and the hunters get after him. He must even as the human soul must run to the divine wa ter brook 6