SEE the little bird that has left the nest, and is trying to fly! Its claws are drawn in, and its wings are only half spread, and it seems to be going down instead of up; but soon, perhaps, the wings will stretch out and begin to flap, and the little bird, beginning to realize its power, will mount upward. Or maybe it will go quite down to the ground, and have to try again and again before it will succeed in its upward flight, for little birds have to learn to fly, just as little boys and girls have to learn to walk.
How eagerly the mother bird, and perhaps the little brother, seated on the edge of the nest, watch the little one that has gone out, as it seems to hover in the air. They look as if they felt the deepest interest; and the little one so wide awake may soon follow. The other little one in the nest looks up at its mother, as if to say: “I wouldn’t like to try that.” The other two seem to be cooing to each other, not thinking at all that they, too, will have to fly, though one of them looks like one of the old birds.
Sometimes little birds do not like to leave their soft, warm nests; they would rather stay where they are, than exert themselves to fly; but this will not do, for the time will come when they, too, must leave the nest.
Now, dear little readers of this paper, do you think you should learn to fly? I fancy I hear some of you saying: “Oh, I never could do that!” And it is quite true that you cannot fly with your bodies; but let me tell you how you can fly: If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you can learn to fly, “in spirit,” above the things of this world. Suppose someone would say to you, “There’s no harm in going to see the show, it’s ever so nice;” and you could answer, “The show belongs to the world, and I cannot go to it, for God says,
Ah! then you are learning to soar in spirit above things of the world.
Do you not think it is pleasant to see the birds as they flit about here and there through the air? How light they are! How swiftly they go! And do you not think that your fight in spirit above the things of the world—its pleasures, its amusements, its vanities—would be a much happier sight? Maybe you think this is a flight that would not be seen! No, no, God sees, and knows all you give up for Him; and people see, too, when you turn away from the ways of the world, to please the Lord; and it is a beautiful testimony—far more beautiful than the flight of the little bird.
People with their comfortable homes and nice surroundings, who do not care for the heavenly things, are like the little birds who do not wish to leave their soft, warm nests. But suppose a storm should come and blow the nest away! Then the little birds that have refused to learn to fly, would be dashed to the ground and killed. So it will be with those who are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,” when the storm of God’s wrath will come upon this poor world; they will be thrown out of their comfortable nests, and they will perish.
Come, then—come now, to Jesus! and, knowing Him, seek strength to fly—that is, to rise in spirit above these things that are of the world. It will prove a blessed flight, whose terminus will be that happy home where there will be no more going out.
ML 12/16/1900