Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/230

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man "who works righteously, and speaks with integrity; who despiseth the gain of oppression; he shall dwell on high, his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks; bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure." He, indeed, approaches nearer and nearer to his Maker's glory, but his nearest approach, though he travel upward to eternity, can but come to the confines of the Divine presence.

The beautiful figure which our motto has presented for our meditation refers to the efforts of the parent eagle to teach her young to fly, and is used as an analogy to illustrate the Lord's kindness to His church: "As the eagle stirreth up her brood, and fluttereth over her young"—to instruct and incite them to the use and exercise of their wings—so does the Lord constantly hover over His people, and, by His Divine influence, as well as by His providential guidance and support, encourage them to go forward, deliver them from all danger, and, like as a father careth for and pitieth his children, or, as the parent bird "fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings," so the Lord preserveth His church and people, and His mercy compasseth them about.


November Tenth.

THE RIDDLE OF THE EAGLE.

"Thus saith the Lord God; a great eagle with great wings, long winged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar. There was also another great eagle, with great wings and many feathers," &c.—Ezek.xvii. 3, 7.

IN the first eagle, the description is of "a great eagle, long winged, and full of feathers, which