Yol. 19, No. 6
ag he ministers to others when he descends into the valley. He
realizes the truth of the lines:
“If you want to be rich, Give!
If you want te be poor, Grasp!
If you want abundance, Scatter!
If you want to be ncedy, Hoard!”
And, after all, is not this the secret of true recreation? 1f
we think only of ourselves, we weary of trying to make our-
selves happy; but when we live for others, our own lives are
happier and rieher thereby. Mrs. C. L. K.
The Message of the Birds—God’s Care
(Program for Week Ending June 25)
BY THELMA WELLMAN
Nores To LEADERS: How many lessons we can learn from the
lives of our little feathered friends! Pass out paper and pencils
to your group, and ask cach to make note of the lessons which
lie sees could be drawn from the points made in each talk. Be-
tween talks give a few minutes for response from the floor.
Talk: “Jack Miner's Bird Sanctuary,” p. 15.
Poem: “To a Waterfowl,” by William Cullen Bryant.
your publie library,
Song: No. 330 in “Christ in Song.”
Memory Gem:
“Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Loved the woodrose and left it on its stalk?
Sec
O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine!”
—Emerson.,
Talk: “Some Birds Every One Ought to Know.” Here are
listed outstanding members of a feathered community whieh
will well repay our efforts toward friendship: Robin, blue jay,
thrush, nuthatch, wren, cardinal, woodpecker, flicker. Look for
interesting peculiarities and distinguishing charaeteristies in
each bird. See your publie library for helps: “The Pocket
Nature Guides,” Vols. I and II, for Eastern North American
birds; Vol. IIT, for Western birds; “The New Nature Library,”
Vol. VI, by Blanchan; and other good bird guides.
Bible Doctrines: Christ's Kingdom Set Up
1. WHEN Jesus was upon earth, what gospel did He preach?
Matt. 4: 23.
2. For what did Jesus teach us to pray? Matt. 6: 10,
3, What event will usher in thig kingdom¢ Matt. 25:31-34.
4, What will become of earthly kingdoms at this time? Dan,
2 or hat declaration is made with reference to the establish-
ment of this kingdom? Rev. 11: 15.
6. Who is to Become the King of this new kingdom? Isa.
5: 2 What must be the experienee of those who become subjeets
of this kingdom? John 3: 3-5; Hebrews 4; Rev. 22: 14.
D. A. Ocas.
Talk: Birds in the Bible
OnE of the most interesting ways of approaching a topie is
to inquire into its history, Therefore, we shall begin this talk
by finding out where birds are first mentioned in the Bible,
They were created on the fifth day, we are told in Genesis 1: 20.
‘We may imagine that in the gardon of Eden birds in all their
varicolored plumage flitted about, happy and unafraid, making
the air melodious with their jubilant songs. After the entrance
of sin, however, this trustfulness ehanged to an attitude of
fear. Death had come to blight the former happiness.
There was use made of the birds in the sacrificial system.
Ouly birds recognized as “clean” by the Lord were used. The
pigeon and the dove are mentioned frequently. They were
brought, as a rule, by the poorer elass, who did not possess many
flocks and herds, Two birds (“sparrows,” margin) were used
in the cercmonial cleansing of the healed leper. (See Lev. 14:
4-7.) The use of birds in the sacrificial system has its most
notable instance in the use of a pair of turtledoves or two
young pigeons by Mary and Joseph at the birth of Christ.
Here are some of the eharaeteristics of the birds found in
the Bible. The contrast between the nature of the raven and
that of the dove is shown in the account of their actions at
the time when Noah sent them forth to discover the state of
the earth after the flood. The natura! boldness of the raven is
ghown by the fact that he did not return to the familiar home
shelter, while the gentler dove returned to the ark again and
again until she found a dry place to set her feet. After that
time Noah knew that it was time fo leave the ark. The revolting
June iz an ideal month in which to begin an outdoor hobby!
THE CHURCH OFFICERS’ GAZETTE 11
diet of the vultures is referred to in Revelation 19:21. The
nest-building habits are referred to in Psalms 104: 16, 17.
Of the most interest to us, however, is the tracing of com-
parisons the writers of the Bible have drawn between the ex-
, perience of the birds and the experience of man. David seems
especially fond of referring to the bird escaped from the fowler,
the bird fleeing to the hills for refuge, and likening this to his
own experience with his enemies. Jeremiah shrewdly remarks
that a man who obtains riches in the wrong way is like the
partridge which sits on her eggs and does not hateh them. Jer,
17: 11. The wisest man in the Bible tells us that a man snared
in an evil time is like a bird eaught in a snare, and I am sure
that most of us have felt that helplessness when caught in the
clutch of cireumstances. Heel. 9: 12. A statement which ought
to bring confidence in the power of God in working for His
people is made by the prophet Isaiah. (Read Isa, 31:5.) Then,
too, we may take heart when we think of the promise of Christ
as to the eare of God for Iliz children as shown in Matthew
6:26 and 10: 29, T. W,
Talk: God’s Care for Birds in Migration
As Creator of the earth, God used the statement in Job
39: 26 to show Job his utter smallness in the face of divine
power. Truly, the facts of migration are proof that by the
wisdom of God the birds turn toward the south for the long
cold winter,
Through the mysterious instinet implanted within them, most
birds migrate during the winter months. A few birds stay with
us. The slate-eolored junce and the chickadee make the winter
merry with their presence.
Some seientists have tried to aeeount, by the theory of leader-
ship, for the faet that birds follow an undeviating route to
the same destination year after year. They argue that the
older birds who have made the trip before serve as leaders for
the new generation. This has been disproved, for it frequently
occurs that older and younger birds migrate at different times.
A general rule for migration is found in the faet that smaller
birds migrate by night only, while the larger ones fly by day or
by day and night too. One often hears the strident eries of
the Canadian geese flying over on a November night. John
Muir, the naturalist, mentions the visits made to his Wisconsin
home by these birds en route to warmer regions. Their backs
were covered with half an ineh of snow at the time they stopped
in hig father’s fields’ for food and rest.
Another interesting point about niigration is the fact that
landmarks are not needed. This is particularly well fllustrated
in the sea birds, called Mother Carey’s chickens. They nest
near the antaretie regions, and spread northward until they
eross the equator. They never come in sight of land at all, so
it must be an instinet which guides them to their nests again.
The regularity with which birds leave in the autumn and
return in the spring is startling. The seed eaters arrive first,
because the early migrants may live on seeds left over from
previous seasons,
A contrast of distance covered in migration between two
kinds of birds will be of interest. The ehickadees of the Rocky
Mountains drop from the 8,000 feet aspen groves to the ereek
bottoms a few miles away. On the other hand, the aretic tern,
a widely traveled bird, rests in the most northern land known,
and has an air line 11,000 miles in length between his winter
and his summer residence.
An interesting incident is told of a German stork which
lost its way to the usual wintering grounds of the gpecies in
Egypt. It had been eaughi and leg-banded in Belurode,
northern Germany. In the autumn of this year, for some rea-
son it did not depart with ifs eompanions, but lingered for a
week. The belated traveler missed his directions, and instead
of making the proper turn in Asia Minor, kept on flying
through Persia, and finally landed in India. He was diseovered
near 2 little lake in Rajputana, and his leg band revealed the
secret of his starting place. This was such an unusual hap-
pening that it appeared in one of the weekly bulleting of the
Academy of Science in Washington, D. C.
As the thoughtful person reflects upon these wonderful facts
from the bird world, he stands in awe of the Power which ean
implant sueh an ingtinet in the hreasts of these creatures. Read
Job 42: 2, T. 'W.
Do you have one?