Kingless Folk, and Other Addresses on Bible Animals

by John Adams

"They err who say that music dwells

Alone within the halls of light;

In anthems loud it also swells

Within the temple of the night.

The happy birds that soar and sing

May all be mute when day is done,

The hum of insects on the wing

May sink to silence with the sun.

But when the sounds of toil are o'er,

And silence reigns beneath the stars,

A murmur runs along the shore,

Where ocean smites his sandy bars.

Its echo floats upon the wind,

Beneath the moonbeam's mystic light,

And stealing o'er the listening mind,

Produces music in the night.

While far among the stars, as runs

The legend through a thousand years,

Amid the rolling of the suns

Is heard the music of the spheres.

The roll of ocean and of star

Dispensing music through the night;

The one behind its sandy bar,

The other in the realms of light.

But both to teach the human breast

That He who guides the star and wave

Can also breathe a psalm of rest

Around the portal of the grave.

The night of grief, of sin, of death,

Is not impervious to His power;

It feels the influence of His breath,

Like springtime come to woo the flower.

It melts in music o'er the soul,

For grief has caught the glorious light,

And rolling as the billows roll,

His songs are heard within the night."

II.—THE COCK-CROWING AND THE FALL OF PETER.

"Verily I say unto thee, Before the COCK crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice" (Mark xiv. 30). But why twice? There is no mention of this detail in the other three gospels. No; but Mark got his information from Peter himself. The pain of the degradation had sunk so deeply into Peter's soul that he had no difficulty in recalling each separate particular. His self-confidence had been so great that he would not deny his Lord, and his subsequent profanity had been so awful after he had once entered on the downward course, that not one warning was sufficient to show him his danger, but a warning repeated and repeated again, before he was rudely awakened from the terrible stupor of his sin. The first crowing of the cock at midnight, and the second crowing-time about three o'clock, were both alike needed to arouse and humble him in the dust; and thus with painful accuracy he was able to recall the very words of the Master, "Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice."

On the other hand, his self-confidence was a measure of his sincerity. Matthew Henry has well said, that Judas said nothing when Christ told him he would betray Him. There was no protesting on his part. "He sinned by contrivance, Peter by surprise: he devised the wickedness, Peter was overtaken in this fault." In the language of "Baxter's Second Innings," "It was a swift that bowled out Peter, the night the cock crowed." And the same author adds, "The best of boys are sometimes taken by swifts." But, swift or slow, it was clearly Peter's duty not to wait even for the first crowing of the cock, before he laid to heart the solemn warning of the Master. It would have been his wisdom to say, "Lord, Thou knowest my nature better than I do; and if Satan desires to have me, that he may sift me as wheat, take Thou charge of my life, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil." That would have been Peter's wisdom and safety. But this he didn't do. He planted his feet on the shifting sand of his own self-confidence, and fell into the awful quagmire of denying his Lord. He would not believe the pointed warning of his Master, and therefore he was left to start up at the voice of the bird, and to go out and weep bitterly. The cock-crowing may come to one man as the summons to praise and prayer; but it comes to another as the very trump of God, calling him to penitence or—judgment.

III.—THE COCK-CROWING AND CHRIST'S SECOND COMING.

"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning" (Mark xiii. 35). There is here a large element of uncertainty. Not the uncertainty of the event, for the second coming of Jesus is one of the things that cannot be shaken, but the uncertainty of the time. "Of that day or that hour knoweth no man, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." The time of His coming has not been revealed, to the end that we should be always ready.

And yet, in that early age, the second advent was believed to be nigh at hand. Jesus spake of it as "a little while." "Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." And James, the Lord's brother, wrote, "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." If the little while has now stretched out into centuries, and the crowing of the cock has not yet been heard, it is not because the Saviour has forgotten His promise, but because the godlessness of men and the worldliness of the Church have raised up innumerable obstacles in His way. Oh, if men would but repent and turn again to Him, those times of refreshing would not be long delayed. God would send Jesus, whom the heavens must receive until the times of restoration of all things (Acts iii. 19-21, R.V.).

What a coming that will be to all those who love His appearing! At midnight, or at the cock-crowing, the cry will be heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him." And they who are ready will rise up at "the voice of the bird," and go in with Him to the marriage supper of the Lamb. But the foolish virgins will be shut outside. They too will rise up at the voice of the bird; but for them, alas! it will be no "bird of the dawn." Like Judas, they will go out into the darkness—a darkness that has no morning; and there will be the weeping and the woe.

But that day, or rather that night, has not yet arrived. It has not yet come for you young people. With you it is still the time of choosing; and if you choose Jesus, if you remember your Creator in the days of your youth, that evil day will never come at all. The cock-crowing will still be to you the trump of God; but it will call you to happiness and not to misery. It will proclaim to you the advent of the eternal dawn; and you will rise up at the voice of the bird to exclaim, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Peace.