On the Treatment of Birds' Nests
If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest i:)rolong thy days. — Deut. xxii. 6, 7.
The minuteness of divine law is here very beautifully illustrated. God does not finish great breadths of work and leave the details to be filled in by other hands. He who guards the planets guards the bird’s nest, though in the latter case His defence may be broken down by wanton hands. Our own life is to be a life of exactness in detail. It is not enough to keep the law in those great aspects which appeal to the public eye and by keeping which a reputation is sometimes unjustly gained but by attention to those minute and hardly discernible features of character wliicli indicate the real quality of the man.
The henejiceace of divine law is also illustrated by this protection of the bird’s nest. God is kind in little things as well as in great. The quality of His love is one whether it be shown in the redemption of the race, in numbering the hairs of our head in ordering our steps, or in giving his beloved sleep. Did we but know it, we should find that all law is beneficent; the law of restriction as well as the law of liberty. The law which would keep a man from doing injury to himself, though it may appear to impair the prerogative of human will, is profoundly beneficent. Was not man to have dominion over the fowls of the air? Truly so, but dominion is to be exercised in mercy. Power that is uncontrolled by kindness soon becomes despotism. Power belongeth unto God, — unto God also belongeth mercy; this is completeness of dominion, not only a hand that can rule but a heart that can love.
A prohibition of this kind shows that there is a right and wrong in everything. There is a right way of appropriating the contents of a birds nest, and there is a way that is equally wrong. So also there is a right way of chiding, and there is a chastisement which becomes mere malice. Morality goes down to every root and fibre of life. In ofiering a salutations 2 in opening a door, in uttering a wish, in writing a letter, in using titles of deference, in every possible exercise of human thought and power, the moral element is present.
The principle of this prohibition admits of wide application to human life. For example: He who can wantonly destroy a birds nest may one day cruelly break up a childs home. We cannot always stop our wantonness just when we please. We are all apt scholars in a bad school, and learn more in one lesson there than we can learn through much discipline in the school of God. The little tyrannies of childhood often explain the great despotisms of mature life. Is not kindness an influence that penetrates the whole life, having manifold expression, alike upward, downward, and laterally, touching all human beings, all inferiors and dependants, and every harmless and defenceless life?
We are to beware of the possibility of being merely pedantic in feeling. It is possible for a man to be very careful of his horse, and to hold the comfort of his servant very lightly. Are there not men who would not on any account break up a birds nest, who would allow a poor relation to die of hunger? Birds’ nests may be preserved, merely as a matter of taste, without the spirit of kindness entering at all into the preservation. What if in all our carefulness for dumb animals we think little of breaking a human heart by sternness or neglect?
Kindness to the lower should become still tenderer kindness to the higher. This is Christs own argument, when he bids us behold the fowls of the air, that in their life we may see our Father’s kindness, he adds, ^’ Are ye not much better than they? ‘’ When he points out how carefully a man would look after the life of his cattle, he adds,” How much better is a man than a sheep? ^’ It ought to be considered a presumptive argument in favour of any man’s spirit, that he is kind to the inferior creatures that are around him. If this presumption be not realised in his case, then is his kindness the bitterest wrong.
It is true that all such injunctions are not repeated in the Christian economy. We have not, in the Christian church now, to guard ourselves by sections and subsections of technical precepts. How, then, does the case stand with us, who have come into a complete inheritance of so-called liberty? We have passed frora the letter to the spirit. God has put within us a clean hearty so that we are no longer true, or kinch, or noble, merely because of a literal direction which is guarded by solemn sanctions, but because the Holy Ghost has sanctified us and made our hearts His dwelling-place. It is utterly in vain for us to attempt to satisfy even our own sense of right, by attending merely to what is known as duty or propriety. If we have not within us the Holy Ghost as our teacher and ruler the efforts of our hand will but disappoint and mock our expectations, This Holy Spirit is the gift of Jesus Christ. We must,, by faith and love know the Son before we can know the Spirit.