He also wrote that the eagle was so powerful that if its wing quills were laid in a box among the feathers of other birds, those of the eagle would devour and consume all the rest." The more eagle history one reads by pagan writers, the more enjoyable become the majestic lines of the Christians, Moses, Job, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk.

Moses had something to say of the eagle in a beautiful song setting forth the mercy of God, in Deuteronomy:

"For the Lord's portion is His people;
Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.
He found him in desert land,

And in the waste howling wilderness;

He compassed him about, He cared for him,
He kept him as the apple of His eye.

"As an eagle that stirreth up her nest, That fluttereth over her young,

He spread abroad his wings, he took them,
He bear them on his pinions;

The Lord alone did lead him,

And there was no strange God with him.

'He made him to ride on the high places of the earth,
And he did eat the increase of the fields,

He made him to suck honey out of the rock,

And oil out of the flinty rock,

Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of rams,
And lambs of the breed of Bashan, and goats

With the fat of kidneys of wheat;

And of the blood of the grape thou drankest wine."

In the old version of the Bible this text reads, “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings". This is such atrocious natural history that I cannot conceive how any one ever attributed it to Moses, for he knew that if an eagle ever carried her young in flight she bore it in her talons. The revision makes this text clear, and the ornithology unquestionable.

Moses, in speaking for the Almighty, also exclaimed with poetic utterance, in Exodus, "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagle's wings, and brought you unto myself." Here he was

merely using the bird's strength of wing in a symbolic manner to suggest that, like it, the Almighty would bear His children with His strength.

Nebuchadnezzar dreamed that he was I driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird's claws." So even unconsciously these people felt the impression of the power and ferocity of the bird, and in their dreams they saw it in terrifying pictures. In John's vision of the throne of God, one of the beasts, "full of eyes before and behind," was an eagle; and in another vision he saw a woman to whom "were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness." The practice of adding the wings of an eagle as an emblem of strength and power was common in those days, and centuries before. Symbol writing is filled with bulls, lions, dragons, beasts of all kinds, and men, portrayed with eagle's wings.

Once Daniel had a dream in which "four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings." Ezekiel spoke the parable and the riddle of the two eagles and the vine. In this vision the first eagle was seen naturally, save perhaps more brightly coloured. "A great eagle, with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had diverse colours, came into Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar." There was also another great eagle, with great wings and many feathers."

In speaking of long life, David used the eagle in comparison, as specimens have lived to a great age in captivity; and how long in freedom, no one knows. In exhorting the people to bless God for His mercy, he cried :

"Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits;
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;

Who healeth all thy diseases;

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;

Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender
mercies;

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things

So thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."

In his great battle chant over the death of Saul and Jonathan, David used the eagle in comparison, and originated two phrases that are every-day quotations with us: one concerning the keeping of a secret, and the other referring to close friends who go out of life together. After he had recovered somewhat from the shock of the news brought him by the Amalekite, who confessed he had killed Saul at his request, David broke forth :

"How are the mighty fallen !

Tell it not in Gath,

Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon;

Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice,

Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

"Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain
upon you,

Neither fields of offerings:

For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away,

The shield of Saul, as of one not anointed with oil.

Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their
lives,

And in their deaths they were not divided :

They were swifter than eagles,

They were stronger than lions.

"Ye daughters of Israel,

"

Weep over Saul,

Who clothed you in scarlet delicately,

Who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.

'How are the mighty fallen in the midst of battle

O Jonathan, slain upon thy high places.

I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan ;
Very pleasant hast thou been unto me:

"Thy love to me was wonderful,

Another reference to the eagle is where Isaiah grew poetical in comforting the people of God, and addressed them thus:

"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 His understanding.

"He giveth power to the faint, And to them that hath no might He increaseth strength.

"Even the youth 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;

They shall walk and not faint."

CHAPTER VII

THE SPARROW

Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house,

Even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God."

-DAVID. UNDOUBTEDLY no other of the small birds included in the Hebrew "tzippor" was so friendly near houses and in gardens as the sparrow. It seems from the text that this word is indiscriminately translated "sparrow" and "birds" or "fowl," as it appears almost forty times in Bible text and is, as a rule, translated "bird," but again distinctively " sparrow." The word covered all small birds nearest sparrows in characteristics and habits, all of which were allowed for food. When the sparrow was designated it was, no doubt, in places where it best filled the requirements of the text.

All of these little brown birds of friendly habit that we think of as like our sparrows swarmed over the plains of Gennesaret. They were of plainer, more even colour than ours, the same size, and of slightly varying families. We have at least sixty-seven different sparrows. Of these the chipping and song sparrows are birds of the small shrubs and bushes, and the ground sparrow nests on the earth. I believe all of these birds originated in Arabia, also our English sparrow, that is imported. Sparrows are the domestic fowl of the wild, and since their history has been kept they have been noted for their love of man and their fearless disposition.

In the north of Palestine, the land of Gennesaret, and on the west of the Sea of Galilee, there lies hilly country, plains, and fertile fields, scattered over with villages. Here, around the foot of Mt. Tabor and over the plains of Esdraelon, swarmed the sparrows, friendly little birds, seeking the protection of man. The bushes of every tiller