Sparrows and Swallows

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, Kit 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 everything 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; they found a house and occupied it without question. O for an appropriating faith!

3. Consider what they enjoyed?

—Safety.

—Rest.

—Abode.

All this in the house of God, hard by his altars. Thus do believers find all in Christ Jesus.

—Delight.

—Society.

—Nearness.

And So, secondarily, they find the same things in the assembly of the saints, in the place where God’s honor dwells.

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 does this. The eagle is too ambitious. The vulture too foul. The cormorant top greedy. The hawk too warlike. The ostrich too wild. The barn-door bird too dependent upon man. The owl too fond of darkness.

These sparrows were little and loving.

II. NESTS FOR THEIR YOUNG.

Some persons are not so much in need pf 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 mentioned 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 alter 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 until 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 dishonor 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 his office dishonored.”

“I’m only a little sparrow, A bird of low degree; My life is of little value,

But the dear Lord cares for me.”

Tennyson plaintively refers to the song of the linnets:—

“I do but sing because I must,

And pipe but as the linnets sing:

And one is glad—her note is mirthful—

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 mirthful 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 from 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 not a place of security, a shelter from storm, a covert to hide one’s self in, from every evil, a protection from all that can harm, “a place to rest in, to nestle in, to joy in”?—Things New 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 inconsistency, harshness, indulgence, or neglect of admonition. If trained in God’s ways, they do not depart from them.