No More Learning

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THE CREATIOK.
The Pigeon. * This family has branched out into almost endless
variety, the species of which are so well known as hardly to need
description.
The domestic pigeon is wonderfully prolific, for though it lays only
two eggs, yet it breeds every month; and so rapid is the growth of
the young, that it is calculated in four years a single pair will
produce upwards of one hundred thousand. It is not a very un-
common thing to see two families in the same nest; one just bora,
the other ready for flight.
The Ring Dove. A beautiful ring round the neck of this
lovely bird gives it its name. It is the largest of this family
known in our country. They generally fly in flocks, and subsist
on berries. You sometimes see them in cages, but they look
miserable.
The Turtle Dove. This bird is called the pattern of fidelity,
love, and simplicity; and naturalists say, that its attachment to
its mate is such, that if the hawk or kite seizes on one, the
other pines away and dies. You remember how sweetly Cowper
alludes to this in his stanzas on the dove. I quote a few verses
of it:--
" When lightnings flash among the trees,
Or kites are hovering near;
I fear lest thee alone they seize,
And know no other fear.
? See Appendix.
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235
" Tis then I feel myself a wife,
And press thy wedded side,
Resolved an union formed for life,
Death only shall divide.
" But oh, if fickle and unchaste,
(Forgive a transient thought,)
Thou couldst become unkind at last,
And scorn thy present lot;
" No need of lightnings from on high,
Or kites with cruel beak,
Denied th' endearments of thine eye,
This widowed heart would break. "
Yes, my beloved children, we may go daily to one part of creation
or another, and get lessons of wisdom. Industry from the ant, (Prov.
xxx. 25;) watchfulness of times from the stork, and crane, and
swallow, (Jer. viii. 7;) and faithfulness from the dove, (Canticles ii.
12--14. )
And now I must conclude this long letter. We have seen the
great sea, wherein are things innumerable. We have watched the
birds of heaven, with their habitations, by the springs and fountains
of waters, and their song among the branches, (Psalm civ. 17--25. )
We have witnessed both elements--the air and the water--sub-
servient to man; and surely the song of the child of God must be,--
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THE CREATION.
" Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy
name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who
forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases: who
crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies. " (Psalm ciii.
1--4. ) That each of you, my beloved children, may be found,
with Daniel, standing in your lot in the end of your days, is the
sincere prayer of
Your ever affectionate Father.
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? THE CREATION.
237
LETTER X.
" AS AN EAGLE STIRRETH UP HER NEST, FLUTTERETH OVER HER YOUNG, SPREADETH
ABROAD HER WINGS, TAKETH THEM, BEARETH THEM ON HER WINGS : SO THE
LORD ALONE DID LEAD HIM, AND THERE WAS NO STRANGE GOD WITH HIM. "--
Deuteronomy xxxii. 11--12.
My dear Children,
I have often remarked to you, when reading the New Testament,
that our blessed Lord almost invariably instructed his disciples, and
the multitude at large, from the circumstances of every day life. It
was not in difficult words, and abstract reasoning; but in the very
plainest language, that he spoke to them; the heart and the conscience,
as well as the understanding, was what he ever appealed to. He
never answered curious inquiries, though he replied to the inquirers;
but this was to direct their eye to one thing alone--their own
salvation. All bore on this, for both by word, as well as by the
sacrifice of the cross, he continually set forth the all-important truth,
that he came to seek and to save that which was lost. Thus, when
the disciples came to him with the inquiry, " Who is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven? " he took a little child unto him, and set him
in the midst of them, and whilst their eyes, doubtless, were fixed upon
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THE CREATION.
it, he said, " Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven," (Matt. xviii. 3. ) And again, when one came to him with the
word, "Lord, are there few that be saved? " how full of mercy the
reply, "K Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto
you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master
of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to
stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to
us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know not whence ye are. "
(Luke xiii. 24, 25,) So, in like manner, when some one told the Lord
of a cruel act that had just taken place; and that Pilate, while the
Galileans had been sacrificing, had slain some of them, and mingled
their blood with the blood of the sacrifice; how striking was his
reply: " Think ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the
Galileans? I tell you nay; but except ye repent ye shall all likewise
perisli," (Luke xiii. 3. ) And so when the Pharisees came to him and
said, " When shall the kingdom of God come ? " his reply was not at all
intended to meet the question, but taking advantage of the subject, he
said, " The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither
shall men say, Lo here, or Lo there; for behold the kingdom of God
is within you," (Luke xvii. 20,) even that kingdom which is righteous-
ness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost, (Rom xiv. 17. ) What was it
for them even to know the time of the kingdom, if they had no part in
it? and assuredly the soul that has not the kingdom of God within
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? LETTER X.
239
him now, will never be a subject of that glorious kingdom of Christ
then ; he that has not the first-fruits of the Spirit in this world, will
never have the fruition in the resurrection unto life in the world
to come.
But now, my beloved children, we will, before we pass on to the
subject immediately before us, contemplate another class of inquirers
that came to the Lord. And O how direct and explicit was his
answers to them! / beseech you to mark the difference. " What shall
we do, that we may work the works of God? " said some Jews to the
Lord. Our Lord instantly replied, " This is the work of God, that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. " (John vi. 28,29. ) So again the
leper, " Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean! " "I will,"
said the Lord, "be thou clean. " (Matt. viii. 1--3. ) "Lord," said
St . Peter, " save me;" and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand,
and caught him, and said unto him, " O thou of little faith, wherefore
didst thou doubt? " (Matt. xiv. 30, 31. )
And how gracious the reply to Mary, who addressed him supposing
him to be the gardener, " Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me
where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto
her, Mary! " (John xx. 15, 16. ) Thus, you observe by these gra-
cious examples, that though the curious inquiry met in each case a
merciful reply, yet the honest inquiry met at once the ready and imme-
diate answer.
I have been led into these introductory remarks, by considering the
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? 240
THE CREATION.
opening of the fifth chapter of St. Luke; for there our blessed Lord
did, in the most striking manner, apply the passing events to the
illustration of divine truth. The scene is the Lake of Gennesaret,
otherwise called the Sea of Tiberias, which is the Sea of Galilee,
where our Lord manifested himself to his disciples after his resurrec-
tion. The multitude had so pressed on the Lord, that he was con-
strained to enter into a ship (a fishing vessel) near at hand, and to
request the owner of it to thrust out a little from the land; and he sat
down and taught the people from the ship: and when he had left
speaking, he said unto Simon, the owner of the vessel, " Launch out
into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon
answering, said unto the Lord, We have toiled all the night, and taken
nothing: nevertheless at thy word, I will let down the net: and when
they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and the
net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in
the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came
and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon
Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees, saying, Depart from me;
for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that
were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: and
so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners
with Simon. And Jesus saith unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth
thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships
to land, they forsook all, and followed him. " (Luke v. 4--11. )
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? LETTER X.
241
Something similar is the account in St. Matthew, (chap. iv. ver. 19;)
"henceforth," saith the Lord, " I will make you fishers of men. "
And truly this is a faithful picture of the gospel ministry: night after
night does the fisherman toil and labour, and sometimes with but little
success: he does not, however, give up his calling, but perseveres
through many a storm and tempest; and come when you will, he is
either mending his nets, or casting them; and times there are when
he returns home richly laden with spoil. So in the Christian ministry
--the net is cast by all waters; and in due season the labour is not in
vain iq the Lord. (1 Cor. xv. 58. ) Here or there an effectual door
is opened. (1 Cor. xvi. 9. ) " Launch out into the deep," is the
word. The net is cast in faith, and encloses a great multitude of fishes.
But while on this subject, suppose you turn to the prophecy of
Ezekiel, chap. xlvii. , and read from the first verse to the eleventh.
That these healing waters, flowing out from the temple of God--the
great multitude of fishes--and the fisherman sitting onEngedi and. E<<-
eglaim--all had a spiritual application, none will deny; and in all pro-
bability our blessed Lord alluded to this scripture, when he called the
Apostles " fishers of men;" for though the prophecy, doubtless, refers
to Israel in the last days, who shall, indeed, be sent forth in the power of
the Holy Ghost, and be the Lord's instruments in carrying out
the good tidings to those who have not heard his name, nor seen his
glory, (Isa. lxvi. 19,) and thus, in the fullest sense, be " fishers of men,"
whose spoil shall be "as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many;"
M
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? 242
THE CREATION.
yet, also, it no doubt, in spirit, refers to the gospel ministry, which,
from the Apostles' times to the present, has been the means of
abundant blessing to nations far and wide.
Having thus briefly looked at this passage in Ezekiel, we will turn
now to the 13th of Matthew. The subject is there quite of a different
character, although the illustration is drawn from the same source.
" Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into
the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew
to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast
the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall
come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just; and shall
cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. " (Matt. xiii. 47--50. )
We watched the fishermen some evenings since. It was with great
quietness they encircled their prey; and when all things were ready,
they began silently to draw in their nets; at last the fish felt some
strange movement in the waters, and the dread reality burst upon
them: but it was too late to escape--they were all dragged to the
land. And so this scripture tells us it will be at the end,--multitudes
will go on sporting in the stream of life--at last the time of casting
the net will come, and then the dread reality will also burst on them.
The net will encircle all; not one will escape. *
" The parables generally convey some one great truth,--in this one, the certainty
of all appearing before God seems to be pointed out.
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243
The allusions to this part of creation are not very frequent in the
scriptures; but when introduced, it is with great force. There
are five incidents, or facts, which are of great interest:--1st. It was a
Great Fish that the Lord had prepared to swallow up Jonah, which
thus became, for three days and three nights, the prophet's miraculous
resting place; affording thereby that most wonderful illustration of
our blessed Lord's lying three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. (Jonah i. 17; Matt. xii. 40. ) 2nd. It was a fish that was
caught by Peter, that supplied the Lord with the exact sum of the
tribute-money, for himself and his servant. (Matt. xvii. 27. ) 3rd. It
was fish and bread that he provided for his disciples at the sea of
Galilee. (John xxi . 9. ) 4th. It was five barley loaves and two fishes
that he multiplied into a repast sufficient for the five thousand; and
there was left of the fragments, twelve baskets full. (Matt. xiv. 15--
21. ) 5 th. It was of the broiled fish and honeycomb that the Lord
ate after his resurrection. (Luke xxiv. 42, 43. )
The passage which I have selected from Deuteronomy xxxii. 11, as
the motto of this letter, is replete with beauty. The eagle is, as it
were, the king of birds, and manifests great tenderness and solicitude
for its young. When the time of their flight has arrived, the parent
bird stirs up her nest, and flutters over them; and the eaglets, encour-
aged by her call, leave their eyrie, or nest, and essay to fly; she
watches, with intense fondness, their every movement; and if they
m2
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THE CREATION.
for a moment falter, darts beneath them, and spreading her broad
expansive wings, bears them on high, free from every danger. " I have
borne thee, saith the Lord, as on eagles' wings," (Exodus xix. 4;) for
thus the Lord, the King of his people, led Israel, and kept them all
the wilderness through. And so in like manner he sustains his people
now; for whatever happened to Israel then was for our example upon
whom the ends of the world are come. (1 Cor. x. 11. )
There is also a peculiarly beautiful passage in Isaiah, where the
eagle's flight is used in the way of illustration, to show the blessed-
ness of waiting upon God. --" Hast thou not known ? hast thou not
heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends
of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ? There is no searching
of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them
that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall
faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up
with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they
shall walk, and not faint" (Isa. xl. 28--31. )
Here the contrast is evidently drawn between human and Divine
strength--Saul's armour and David's sling. (1 Sam. xvii. 38--40. )
Have you, my dear children, ever watched, when at Lugnaquilla,
the eagle in its flight? have you seen it soar on high, gazing as it
were on the sun ? This is the figure of the child of the Lord that
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? LETTER X.
24. r>
waits on him--he shall soar on high, with a hope full of immortality
--he shall run in the Divine life, and not be weary; and walk amid
the trials of the wilderness, and not faint.
There is also another most striking use of this bird as a similitude
in the 17th of Luke, 20--37. The Lord had been conversing with
his disciples, relative to " the days of the Son of manand when
he had reached that part, " then shall two be in the field, one shall be
taken and the other left"--unable any longer to restrain their anxious
desires, they burst forth with the cry, "Where, Lord? " and he
replied, " Wheresoever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered
together. " This answer was evidently a direct appeal to their con-
sciences. See * that you are ready to meet the Lord; so that when
he appears, you may mount up as on eagles' wings, to his presence.
There is a passage, my dear children, in Isaiah xxxi. 5, that has
often struck me with great force. --"As birds flying, so will the Lord
of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending, also he will deliver it; and
passing over, he will preserve it. " This must allude to the exceeding
rapidity of the flight of birds. And thus the Lord will hasten for
his people's deliverance ; Sennacherib, with his forces, may cover the
valleys, and come up like the Lion from the swelling of Jordan; and
Rabshakeh, his general, may insult the Lord's children on the very
? This figure seems evidently to denote the concentrating, or gathering together
at a given point. An Eastern traveller, Dr. Clarke, says, that the eagle and
vulture will scent or see a carcase in the wilderness at an incredible distance,
and hasten their flight to it.
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THE CREATION.
walls of Zion; but the Lord will dart down as the lightning for
their deliverance; he will come riding on the wings of the cherub;
yea, he will fly on the wings of the wind (Ps. xviii. 10); pass-
ing over, he will protect them, not a spear shall fall on his Israel,
nor an arrow light on his favoured Jerusalem. (Isaiah xxxvii. 21, 87. )
But, my beloved children, if the eagle sets forth the watchful care
of the Lord over his people, and the swiftness of his mercy to help;
other emblems bring out other parts of his gracious character.
The lamentation of our blessed Lord over Jerusalem can never be
forgotten,--" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets,
and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings; and ye would not," (Matt . xxiii. 37. ) Perhaps
amid the rural scenes of life, nothing is more full of interest than
the mother bird gathering her brood beneath the covert of her wings
whilst the hawk is hovering nigh. Safety and warmth are combined
in that protection; and when the enemy is gone, the little family
again sally forth; but safety is in keeping close to those wings that
alone can shelter. The emblem needs no application. The Lord is
all this, and infinitely more to his people. It was a beautiful saying
of the old Jews, when a Gentile was converted, and brought to eat
of the Paschal Lamb, " This Gentile is now come to dwell beneath
the wings of the shadow of the Majesty of God. " The allusion was
in all probability to the wings of the cherubim, in the Most Holy
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? LETTER X.
247
Place; and I have no doubt, that all the references in the Psalms to
the shadowing wings of the Almighty, had a direct reference to
those cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat. (Heb. ix. 1, 5. )
In Jeremiah viii. 7, the Lord introduces the birds of passage, and
thus remonstrates with his people: " Yea, the Stork in the heaven
knoweth her appointed times, and the Turtle and the Swallow observe
the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of
the Lord. "
Thus, ever, the gathering of the swallows on our autumnal
morning comes to God's children with instruction; and is a call to
them for watchfulness of the times and seasons to fulfil his will.
The Psalmist, in the 84th Psalm, which I referred to in the fourth
day, has a beautiful allusion to the swallow and the sparrow. The
Psalm thus opens:--" How amiable are thy tabernacles, 0 Lord of
hosts! my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord:
my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. (Yea, the
sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,) thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my
King, and my God. " The Jews, in their version of this Psalm,
and in which they are followed by some eminent Christians, put the
clause concerning the sparrow and swallow in a parenthesis, as above,
and the sense then would be, that whilst these birds have both been
careful to provide a nest to lay their young, the Psalmist had also
his rest--his place of assured confidence and strength, even the
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? 248 THE CREATION.
altars of his God. And so the child of God now has his rest; for
gazing continually on the offering that rose up before God as a sweet
savor, he has rest with Jesus. Thus^ my dear children, so trifling a
thing as the nest of a swallow or sparrow, if the heart is right with
God, will bring to the remembrance of the child of God, that he
also has a rest; for his dwelling is in the secret place of the Most
High, and his abiding place under the shadow of the Almighty.
(Psalm xci. 1. )
Many a heart in trial has found an expression for its grief in that
mournful passage of the Psalmist, " I watch, and am as a sparrow
alone upon the house top. " (Ps. cii. 7. ) The mate and brood all gone,
and the lone bird solitary and in grief. But O, how sweet to turn
from that scene, and in hope to realize the time when God's purposes
shall be fulfilled, and he will again " set the solitary in families. " Yes,
brighter days await the child of light--spring shall assuredly come;
and God will compass the lone one about with songs of deliverance.
(Ps. xxxii. 7; cxlii. 7. )
No bird is so familiar to us as the sparrow, and this makes the
constant allusion to it so very precious. " Are not," said our gracious
Lord, " two sparrows sold for a farthing; and one of them shall not
fall on the ground without your Father; but the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value
than many sparrows. " (Matt . x. 29, 32. ) How full of consolation is
this passage. I remember, in a long illness, when the sight of the
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? LETTER X.
249
sparrow, and the application of this passage, in the power of the Spirit,
to my heart, gave me a comfort I cannot describe. Truly we may
say, in the midst of every trial, " I will not let go my confidence; for
I am of more value than many sparrows. "
But perhaps the bird the most frequently alluded to in scripture is
the Dove. The first mention of it is full of interest. It bore the
olive-branch to Noah ; and was God's messenger to the Patriarch, to
tell him that the waters were abated. (Gen. viii. 11. ) And when the
Spirit of God descended on Him who came with the olive-branch
from the throne of God, proclaiming peace and good-will to man,
(Lukeii. 14,) it was in a bodily shape like a dove. (Luke iii. 22. )
And again, when our blessed Lord would choose the emblem, by
which he might call his children to harmlessness, the dove was the
figure:--" Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. "
(Matt. x. 16.