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True Education
nests, and rear their young. Every moment enemies seek to destroy
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them, yet they go about their work cheerily! Their little songs are
full of joy!
God sends springs of water to run among the hills where the
birds live and “sing among the branches.”
Psalm 104:12
. All the
creatures of the woods and hills are part of His great household. He
opens His hand and satisfies “the desire of every living thing.”
Psalm
145:16
.
The eagle of the Alps is sometimes beaten down by the tempest
into the narrow defiles of the mountains. Storm clouds shut in this
mighty bird of the forest, their dark masses separating her from the
sunny heights where she has made her home. Her efforts to escape
seem fruitless. She dashes to and fro, beating the air with her strong
wings and waking the mountain echoes with her cries. At length,
with a note of triumph, she darts upward, and, piercing the clouds,
is once more in the clear sunlight, with the darkness and tempest far
beneath.
So we may be surrounded with difficulties, discouragement, and
darkness. Falsehood, calamity, injustice, shut us in. There are clouds
that we cannot dispel. In vain we battle with circumstances. There
is but one way of escape. Beyond the clouds God’s light is shining.
Into the sunlight of His presence we may rise on the wings of faith.
Many are the lessons that may be drawn from nature: for ex-
ample, self-reliance, from the tree that, growing alone on plain or
mountainside, strikes down its roots deep into the earth, and in its
rugged strength defies the tempest; the power of early influence,
from the gnarled, shapeless trunk, bent as a sapling, to which no
earthly power can afterward restore its lost symmetry; the secret of a
holy life, from the water lily, that, on the bosom of some slimy pool,
surrounded by weeds and rubbish, strikes down its channeled stem
to the pure sands beneath, and, drawing thence its life, displays its
fragrant blossoms in spotless purity.
Thus while the children and youth gain a knowledge of facts
from teachers and textbooks, let them learn to draw lessons and
discern truth for themselves. In their gardening, question them as
to what they learn from the care of their plants. As they look on
a beautiful landscape, ask them why God clothed the fields and
woods with such lovely and varied hues. Why was not all a somber