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tliou that killest the prophets , and stonest them which are sent unto thee , how often would I have gathered thy children together , even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings ! ' Matt , xxiii . 37 . * To these we may add another of great beauty and pathos : * He is brought as a , lamb to the slaughter ; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb , so he openeth not his mouth . ' Isa . liii . 7- The author of the 102 d Psalm , in that state of profound affliction which courts and delights in soli
tude , compares himself to the pelican of the wilderness , to an owl or bittern of the desert , or to a solitary bird sitting watchful and sad on the house-top . When David laments over Saul and Jonathan , he tell us that , they were swifter than eagles , and stronger than lions / When he speaks of the virulence of his enemies , he says , They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent , the adder ' s poison is under their lips . * When he longs to escape from their noise and violence , he wishes for the wings of a dove . How
strongly does he depict the Divine protection afforded to the good man , when he addresses him thus ! ' Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder , the younglion and dragon shalt thou trample under foot . ' Speaking of his future dignity , he says , * my horn ( the emblem of power ) shalt thou exalt , like the horn of the unicorn / When he longs for devotional enjoyments , he declares that his soul * panteth after thee , O God , as the hart panteth for the waterbrooks . ' And in that noble Psalm , in which he invokes the elements of
nature , the princes of the earth , and the celestial hierarchies , to celebrate the praises of Jehovah , he forgets not also to invoke * beasts and all cattle , creeping things and flying fowl / " Our blessed Lord often employs similar imagery . When he sends forth his disciples , he informs them , that he sends them as sheep among wolves . When appealing to the natural feelings of his auditors , he asks , if any father among them would give his son a serpent instead of a fish . Among his
prudential precepts he cautions us , * Not to give that which is holy unto the dogs , neither to cast our pearls before swine / He compares the growth and extension of the gospel to that of a small seed which becomes an umbrageous tree , and lodges the fowls of the air in its branches . Prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem , he adopts the proverb , * Wheresoever the carcase is , there will the eagles be gathered together / And when he depicts his own forlorn situation in the world , he says , * The foxes have holes , and the birds of the air have nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head /
" To Solomon we are indebted for the well-known sentiment , 'A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast / ( Prov . xiL 10 , ) or , more literally , ' A just man knoweth the soul ; ' i . e . he understandeth the nature and habits of his beast , and provides for them accordingly . A cruel man , from , self-interest , may take care of his horse and his kine ; but a just man has such a regard for them as the spirit of mercy naturally inspires , and which , independently of all selfish considerations , induces him to shew a tender concern for their comfort .
" Though our blessed Lord has not given us any express command for humanity to brutes , this duty is inseparably blended with his general exhortations to benevolence and compassion . His beautiful allusion to the care with which God feeds ' the fowls of the air , which neither reap , nor sow , nor gather into barns / seems to warn us against injuring or abusing what is the special object of divine regard . Again , he tells us , that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without the knowledge of God ; a consideration well suited to make us beware how we sport with the lives of God ' s creatures . He desires
his disciples to join the wisdom of the serpent to theharmlessness of the dove ; and no man guilty of an act of cruelty , though to a worm or a fly , can be truly said to > conform to the spirit of this precept . That benevolence which our Lord inculcated , and which pervades all his discourses , is not limited to persons or places , to times or circumstances . It is not a special act , but a universal principle which flows freely forth to all creatures capable of being
Untitled Article
318 Humanity to Animtds .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 318, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/30/
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