"AS A HEN GATHERETH HER CHICKENS"
Illustration★★★★★I have been raising chickens this year, and I have devoted a part of my pear orchard to the chicken coops; Appendix III The and I have been accustomed to go out mornings and evenings to see that the boy took care of the chickens. I think I have now about ten or fifteen broods. old hen, when watching them, would cluck; and it was to them a warning of danger, I suppose.
They under- stand it to mean that they are to come in. I could not understand that language; but these little things that had never been to school understood instantly just what she said.
She gave her whole self to them, and their instinct was to run under her, and when there to lift themselves close up to her body and get their warmth from her. I have watched them as they did this again and again. “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” What an idea of the intimate and clear relationship between the soul and the Lord Jesus Christ is conveyed in that figure! (Luke xiii.
34).-H. WARD BEECHER.
The point
Beecher watches chickens understand their mother's warning cluck and huddle under her wings; he reflects on Christ's saying 'How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,' showing intimate relationship and protective love.