Sparrows and Swallows
$salm Imtt). 3. — “£)ca, tl)c sparrow l)atl) fonna an l)ousc, anb tl)e sumlloiu a nest for Ijfrsdf, tuljnre stye mag laj) tyer goring, men tljine altars, OD £orip of I)osts, mj) King, anb ing (Sao.”
David, as an exile, envied the birds which dwelt around the house of the Lord. So the Christian, when debarred the assembly of the saints, or under spiritual desertion, will pine to be once more at home with God.
These birds found in the sanctuary what we would find in God.
I. HOUSES FOR THEMSELVES.
That they should find houses in and around the Lord’s house is remarkable, and David dwelt on it with pleasure.
1. Consider what they were. Sparrows.
Worthless creatures. Five for two farthings.
Needy creatures, requiring both nests, food, and every thing else.
Uninvited guests. The temple did not need them, it might have been all the better without them.
Numerous creatures; but none were driven away.
2, Consider what they did. “Found a house” — a comfortable, suitable, permanent abode.
They looked for it, or they could not have been described as having found it.
It was there already, or they could not have found it.
They appropriated it. Their right lay in discovery;
XLIX. SPAREOVVS AtfD SWALLOWS. 231
they found a house and occupied it without question.
Oh, for an appropriating faith!
8. Consider what they enjoyed?
Safety.
.,, All this in the house of God, bard by
his altars. Thus do believers find all
Delight.
0. m Christ Jesus.
Society.
Nearness.
And so, secondarily, they find the same things in the assembly of the saints, in the place where God’s honor dwelleth. We come to the house of the Lord with joy. We remain in it with delight. We sit and sing in it with pleasure. We commune with our fellow-songsters with much content.
It is not every bird that Joes this. The eagle is too ambitious. The vulture too foul. The cormorant too greedy. The hawk too warlike. The ostrich too wild. The barn-door fowl too dependent upon man. The owl too fond of darkness. These sparrows were little and loving.
H. NESTS FOB THEIR YOUNG.
Some persons are not so much in need of a house for themselves; for, like swallows, they live on the wing, and are active and energetic; but they need a nest for their young, for whom they are greatly anxious. They long to see the young people settled, happy, and safe in God.
Children should be housed in the house of God. The sanctuary of God should be the nursery of the young.
1. They will be safe there, and free there. The swallow,
the “bird of liberty,” is satisfied to find a nest for herself near the altars of God. She is not afraid of bondage there either for herself or her young.
2. They will be joyful there. We should try to make our
little ones happy in God, and in his holy worship.
Dull Sabbaths and dreary services should not be men« tioned among us.
3. They are near the blessing, when we bring them near the
house of the Lord.
4. They are in choice society; their companions will be the
companions of Jesus.
5. They are likely to return to the nest, as the swallows do;
even as the young salmon return to the rivulet where they were hatched. Young folks remember their first impressions.
6. Children truly brought to Christ have every blessing in
that fact.
They are rich; they dwell in God’s palace.
They are educated; they abide in the Lord’s temple.
They are safe for time and eternity.
The second blessing of a nest for our young often follows on the first, or getting a house for ourselves.
But it needs prayer, example, and precept. Children do not take to religion as ducks to water; they must be led and trained with earnest care.
Are you sighing after Christ for yourself and your children?
Are you content without Christ? Then you are not likely to care about your children.
Do you already possess a home in Jesus? Rest not till all yours are housed in the same place.
FRAGMENTS.
Sir Thomas More used to attend the parish church at Chelsea, and there, putting on a surplice, he would sing with the choristers at matins and high mass. It happened, one day, that the Duke of Norfolk coming to Chelsea to dine with him, found him at church thus engaged. As they walked home together arm in arm, after service, the duke exclaimed, “My Lord Chancellor a parish clerk! A parish clerk! you <LAhonor the king and his office!” “Nay,” he replied, smiling,” your Grace cannot suppose that the king, our master, will be offended with me for serving his Master, or thereby account hia office dishonored.”
“I’m only a little sparrow,
A bird of low degree;
My life is of little value,
Bnt the dear Lord cares for me.”
Tennyson plaintively refers to the song of the linnet*:
“I do but sing because I must,
And pipe but as the linnets sing:
And one is glad — her note is gay —
For now her little ones have ranged;
And one is sad — her note is changed — Because her brood is stolen away.”
The feeling of the linnets may serve as an analogue. Christian parents have a gay note when their little ones have ranged at their sweet will in the paths of duty; but their note must be one of sadness when the brood is stolen away frpm truth and righteousness. — W. Norris.
“God fails not,” as one has beautifully said, “to find a house for the most worthless, and the nest for the most restless of birds.” What confidence this should give us! How we should rest! What repose the soul finds that casts itself on the watchful, tender care of Him who provides so fully for the need of all his creatures! We know what the expression of “nest” conveys, just as well as that of “a house.” Is it nol a place of security, a shelter from storm, a covert to hide one’f self in, from every evil, a protection from all that can harm, “a place to rest in, to nestle in, to joy in”? — Things Neu and Old.
A custom, existing among several nations of antiquity, is deemed capable of illustrating the present passage. For birds whose nests chanced to be built on the temples, or within the limits of them, were not allowed to be driven away, much less to be killed, but found there a secure and undisturbed abode. — W. K. Clay.
As a rule, the children of godly parents are godly. In cases where this is not the case there is a reason. I have carefully observed and detected the absence of family prayer, gross in consistency, harshness, indulgence, or neglect of admonition. If trained in God’s ways, they do not depart from them.
J)0alm n. 11. — “for yt sljall gtoe )ls angelo charge oucr %e, to keep %£ in all ll)t) roags.”
The Lord gave his people shelter in the time of pestilence, for he had promised, “There shall no evil befall thee; neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” The former verses celebrate the Passover of those who dwell in God.
After the Passover came a journey to Canaan; and the promise of the covenant angel and his keeping them in all their ways fitly follow upon the rescue from the plague.
We, too, are pilgrims on our way to Canaan. He who set us free by the Passover deliverance also provides for our journey to the land which floweth with milk and honey. All the way to the promised land is covered by this divine safe-conduct.
I. THERE ARE WAYS WHICH ARE NOT IN THE PROMISE.
“All thy ways” are mentioned; but some tracks are not to be followed by children of God, and are not their ways.
1. Ways of presumption. In these men court danger, and,
as it were, defy God. “Cast thyself down,” said Satan to our Lord, and then urged this promise. Matt. iv. 6.
2. Ways of sin, dishonesty, lying, vice, worldly conformity,
etc. We have no permit to bow in the house of
Bimmon. Eph. v. 12.
8. Ways of worldliness, selfishness, greed, ambition. The ways by which men seek personal aggrandizement are usually dark and crooked, and are not of God. Prov. xxviii. 22; 1 Tim. vi. 9.
4. “Ways of pride, self-conceit, boastful promisings, pretended perfection, etc. “Pride goeth before destruction.”
5. Ways of will worship, wilfulness, obstinacy, fancy, day
dreaming, absurd impulse, etc. Jer. ii. 18.
6. Ways of erroneous doctrine, novel practice, fashionable
ceremonial, flattering delusion, etc. 2 Tim. iii, 5.
II. THERE ARE WATS IJT WHICH SAFETY is GUARANTEED.
1. The way of humble faith in the Lord Jesus.
2. The way of obedience to divine precepts.
3. The way of childlike trust in providential guidance.
4. The way of strict principle and stern integrity.
5. The wav of consecrated service and seeking God’s glory.
6. The way of holy separation and walking with God.
III. THESE WATS LEAD us IXTO VARIED CONDITIONS.
1. They are changeful and varied; “all thy ways.”
2. They are sometimes stony with difficulty;” foot against
a stone.”
8. They may be terrible with temptation.
4. They may be mysteriously trying. Devils may throng
the path — only to be met by holy angels.
5. They are essentially safe, while the smooth and easy
roads are perilous.
IV. BUT WHILE WALKING IX THEM ALL BELIEVERS ARE SECURE,
1. The Lord himself concerns himself about them. “He shall give his angels charge over thee.” He will personally command those holy beings to have an eye to his children. David charged his troops to spare Absalom, but his bidding was disregarded. It is not so with God.
3. Mysterious agencies protect them; angels bear them up in their hands, as nurses carry little children. Wonderful tenderness and power! Angels acting as servants to men!
3. All things are on their side, both visible and invisible.
Command is laid on all to protect the saints. “Thou hast given commandment to save me.” Ps. lxxi. 3.
4. Each one is personally watched over.” Charge over thee
to keep thee.’” Is. xiii. 6; Gen. xxviii. 15.
5. That watchfulness is perpetual — “All thy ways.” Ps.
cxxi. 3, 4.
6. This guard also confers honor. How noble a thing to
have the courtiers of heaven for a corps de garde!
7. All this comes to them by Jesus, whose the angels are,
and whom they serve. Is. xliii. 4.
See how the lowest employment is consistent with the highest enjoyment — keeping guard over the Lord’s stumbling children is no discredit to angels.
How cheerfully we should watch over others! How vigorously should we hold them up whenever it is in our power! To cast off a stumbling brother is not angelic, but the reverse.
How safe we ought to feel, how fully trustful we ought to be! Alexander slept soundly, “for,” said he, l’ Parmenio wakes.”
How holy we should be with such holy ones for watchers! Great privileges involve heavy responsibilities.
GARNISHING.
While King William, at a battle in Flanders, was giving orders in the thickest of the fight, he saw, to his surprise, among his staff one Michael Godfrey, a merchant of London, and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, who had thus exposed himself in order to gratify his curiosity. The king, riding up to him, said, “Sir, you ought not to run these hazards; you are not a soldier, you can be of no use here.”
“Sire,” answered Godfrey, “I run HO more hazard than your Majesty.” “Not so,” said William;” I am here where it is my duty to be, and I may, without presumption, commit my
life to God’s keeping; but you ‘The sentence needed
no completion, for at that very moment a cannon ball laid Godfrey lifeless at the king’s feet. He had been wise had he restricted himself to the ways of his calling and duty.
Old Humphrey has a good paper against wandering from the path of duty, suggested by a notice at the entrance of a park: “Take notice. In walking through these grounds, you are requested to keep the foot-path.” Bunyan has supplied the same theme for solemn warning in the pilgrim straying into By-path meadow. — Bowes.
Angels our servants are,
And keep in all our ways;
And in their watchful hands they bear
The sacred sons of grace;
Unto that heavenly bliss
They all our steps attend;
And God himself our Father is,
And Jesus is our Friend.
—Wesley.
A dying saint asked that his name should be put upon his tombstone, with the dates of his birth and death, and the one word, “Kept.”
Our protection is in other hands than our own. In the way of duty we are as safe as in heaven. Not alone in great dangers, but in little ones we are secure if we are in the right way — for we are kept from stumbling-stones as well as from fiery darts. Our guards are such as no enemy can resist, for they are strong; such as no evil can escape, for they are swift; such as no weariness can tire, for they are never weary. We have a bodyguard of immortals, each one of them invincible, unflagging, loyal, loving, and full of fire. Each angel may
truly say,
“A charge to keep I have,”
Keep it he will till the Lord himself shall receive our spirit. No angel will give in his account with sorrow, saying,” I could not keep him; the stones were too many, his feet too feeble, the way too long.” No, we shall be kept to the end; for in addition to angels, we have the safeguard of their Lord; HE keepeth the feet of his saints. 1 Sam. ii. 9.