do my thoughts fly to thee." No wonder, after he had known the fullness of her love and she had gone out, a beautiful soul, straight to the windows of her heavenly home, that he walked the floor, distraught, crying, "I want her! O, I want her!" I doubt if man has known greater and holier love than hers.

After being recorded in history, and made the basis of these beautiful comparisons, the dove was embalmed in song. Solomon repeatedly sang of it in those exquisite songs in which he and David set the world an example it has failed to follow. In one sentence, which sinks so deep into the heart it remains a lifetime, they put more pure imagery, more poetic thought, and more subtle comparison than our poets encompass on many pages:

"O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,

In the covert of the steep place,

Let me see thy countenance,

Let me hear thy voice;

For sweet is thy voice,

And thy countenance is comely."

These lines celebrate Divine care of the Church and are based on the knowledge of the rock dove. Again, in referring to Christ's awakening of His people :

"I was asleep, but my heart waked;

It is the voice of my Beloved, that knocketh, saying,

Open to Me,

My sister, my love,

My dove, my undefiled:

For My head is filled with dew,

My locks with the drops of the night.'”

He used the dove again in describing the person of Christ with poetic imagery:

"His eyes are like the doves beside the water brooks; Washed with milk, and fitly set."

In singing the graces of the Church :

"My dove, my undefiled, is but one;
She is the only one of her mother;

She is the pure one of her that bare her."

He made the Bridegroom to chant :

Behold, thou art fair, my love, behold, thou art fair,
Thine eyes are as doves."

And again :

"Thine eyes are as doves, behind thy veil."

It would seem that all these tributes and comparisons were enough to place the dove above all other birds in the hearts of the people, but there is yet its highest honour to recount:

"And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and, lo, a Voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

This is the crowning glory of the innocent and tender dove. The Almighty, who knew all of His creations intimately, chose it as the medium in which His Spirit should materialize at the baptism of Christ. No other bird in the history of all the world has borne honour high as this.

CHAPTER VI

THE EAGLE

"Doth the eagle mount up at thy command,

And make her nest on high?

She dwelleth on the rock, and hath her lodging there,
Upon the crag of the rock, and the stronghold.

"From thence she spieth out the prey,

And her eyes behold it afar off.

Her young ones also suck up blood:
And where the slain are, there is she."

-JOB.

THE little strip at the east end of the Mediterranean must have been the most wonderful place of all the world for natural history subjects. In that small space, under almost tropical skies, with air tempered by the great sea and mountains, which are as numerous there as in Switzerland, though lower; with the sea on the west, and a salt sea in the interior; rivers, lakes, and brooks of pure water; fountains and springs, with rich plains and fertile valleys; where does earth produce another spot of equal size so congenial as a home for all kinds of furred and feathered creatures?

In nearly every instance what Bible writers said of the birds proves their habits and characteristics unchanged to-day. From the sanity of the greater part they wrote it is almost positive that when their meaning is obscure there is an error in translation. No one of them knew the birds, or at least went into detail, as the Man of Afflictions. There is just a possibility that brooding over his troubles from the unpromising vantage of an ash-heap Job watched the creatures around him to learn if living was a rough affair for them. As he was the soul of honour, he recorded what he saw in a way to furnish a model for all following observers. Any one who can record plain truths in exquisite verse is a great genius. Most authors

to-day feel that plain fact is not poetical and must be embellished somewhat to make it attractive. The living quality of Job and all other Bible writers lies in their ability to make naked truths appealing.

What does any one need to know of an eagle not contained in this inspired poem of Job's?

“Doth_the_eagle mount up at thy command ?”

Indeed no! It mounts at the command of its nature. With unsurpassed strength of wing in unequalled flight it soars, sails, wheels, mounts, drops, and poises motionless eyeing the sun, as it chooses. Its great wings are from seven to nine feet in sweep, and its body averages three feet in length. Those wings are often over two feet wide in their greatest extent, and sixteen inches in the least. Once a primary quill, twenty-four inches in length, dropped in my path from above cloud. With feet drawn among the feathers, the eagle stretches these large fans and sweeps cloud spaces over three hundred feet above us; or folds them and darts earthward like an arrow until it wants to recover itself and soar on high again. No other bird of history has its strength of wing, its tireless flight, and its poise and grace of motion.

Obadiah was thinking of this very thing when he wrote, "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle." Every writer in the Bible who wished to portray swift motion in cloud spaces used it as an illustration. Job said of himself:

"Now my days are swifter than a post;
They flee away, they see no good.
They are passed away as the swift ships:
As the eagle that swoopeth on prey."

Solomon included the flight of this bird among the marvels which he enumerated in Proverbs :

'There be three things which are too wonderful for me,

Yea, four which I know not;

The way of an eagle in the air;

The way of a serpent upon a rock;

The way of a ship in the midst of the sea;

And the way of a man with a maid."

This swift flight of an eagle, the poise above prey, and the fierce downward plunge were in the mind of Jeremiah when he said to the Ammonites, "For thus saith the Lord; Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab." As eagles were common in the affairs of life all over the Holy Land, and the sharp-shooting bowmen practically the only protection against their ravages, Moab knew exactly what Jeremiah meant. If the Almighty were going to spread His wings over them and make the fierce downward plunge of a hunger-maddened eagle seeking prey over their flocks, fowl, and children, it was time to heed the prophet's words. This same warning was given to the inhabitants of Bozrah. Hosea cried, "Set the trumpet to thy mouth as an eagle he cometh against the house of the Lord; because they have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law." These men were hitting straight from the shoulder, and they were aiming at the heart. They were putting things just as strongly as they could honestly, and as forcibly as they knew how. Had there been a bird within their knowledge of stronger, swifter flight, fiercer habit, more appropriate to their purposes, you may be very sure they would have used it in their comparisons and similies.

In exhorting Judah to repentance, Jeremiah fell into heroic vein under the impulse of his strong emotions, and delivered a great poetic outburst of warning:

"Now will I also utter judgments against them.
Behold, He shall come up as clouds,

And His chariots shall be as a whirlwind

His horses are swifter than eagles.

Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.

O Jerusalem,

Wash thy heart from wickedness,

That thou mayst be saved."

You observe the line, "His horses are swifter than eagles," which were the swiftest things Jeremiah knew to use as his standard of comparison. Habakkuk could make this point no stronger when he reached the highest pitch of eloquence concerning the Chaldeans, and needed almost a similar comparison :