



Produced by Al Haines.





"But Love, that moves the earth, and skies, and sea,
Beheld his old love in her misery,
And wrapped her heart in sudden gentle sleep;
And meanwhile caused unnumbered _ants_ to creep
About her, and they wrought so busily
That all, ere sundown, was as it should be,
And homeward went again the _kingless folk_."
  --_The Earthly Paradise._



                            *KINGLESS FOLK*

                                 *AND*

                  *Other Addresses on Bible Animals.*


                                 BY THE

                 *Rev. JOHN ADAMS, B.D., Inverkeilor.*



                         Edinburgh and London:
                     OLIPHANT, ANDERSON & FERRIER.
                                 1897.




                              *CONTENTS.*


KINGLESS FOLK, The Ant

HOOKS OF STEEL, The Bear

THE SACRED BIRD, The Dove

LITTLE, BUT WISE, The Coney

CROWNED WITH HONOUR, The Ass's Colt

THE REDBREAST

A BORN MATHEMATICIAN, The Bee

THE BIRD OF FREEDOM, The Swallow

A HOUSE OF GOSSAMER, The Spider

LITTLE FOLLIES, The Fly

PEARLS, NOT PEAS, The Pearl-Oyster

SOME OTHER SHELLS

CALVES OF THE STALL, The Calf

FUR OR FEATHER?, The Bat

ONWARD AND UPWARD, The Eagle

THE VICTOR VANQUISHED, The Lion

THE BIRD OF THE DAWN, The Cock-crowing

PEACE




                               *The Ant.*


"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which
having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer,
and gathereth her food in the harvest."--Prov. vi. 6-8.


Of what use is a sluggard? "Everything in the world is of some use,"
says John Ploughman, "but it would puzzle a doctor of divinity, or a
philosopher, or the wisest owl in our steeple, to tell the good of
idleness; that seems to me to be an ill wind which blows nobody any
good, a sort of mud which breeds no eels, a dirty ditch which would not
feed a frog.  Sift a sluggard grain by grain, and you'll find him all
chaff."  A sluggard is really a good-for-nothing, and no better advice
could be given to boys than this: "Get out of the sluggard's way, or you
may catch his disease and never get rid of it. Grow up like bees, and
you will never be drones."

In this passage from the Book of Proverbs, Solomon advises the sluggard
to go back to school that he may learn _wisdom_, for his folly is quite
equal to his idleness. He is too lazy to drive in a nail, and as the old
jingling rhyme has it, "For want of a nail a shoe came off, for want of
a shoe a horse was lost, for want of a horse a man was lost, for want of
a man a battle was lost, and for loss of a battle a kingdom was lost."
Because of the sluggard's first idleness in refusing to drive in the
nail the whole kingdom comes down about his ears.  It is not much ease
he gets for all his scheming, and therefore he is sent back to school to
learn wisdom.

The schoolmaster this time is the _Ant_, for, as the Bible tells us,
"there be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are
exceeding wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their
meat in the summer" (Prov. xxx. 24).

The wisdom taught by the ant is threefold.


                        I.--THE WISDOM OF WORK.

If it be the hand of the diligent that maketh rich, the ants deserve to
flourish; for there are few sluggards in their nest. The great mass of
the teeming population is called "_the workers_."  There may be a few
males and females in each community dressed in four beautiful gauze
wings, and no doubt regarding themselves as very superior members of the
society--the veritable aristocracy of ant life--but they never touch the
work with one of their little fingers.  The keeping of the nest, the
gathering of the food, the care of the eggs, and the rearing of the
young ants, all devolves on the shoulders of the willing workers; and
they, though they have no wings at all, and are called "neutrals" and
some other ugly names, cheerfully undertake the whole labour, and make
the entire community flourish through sheer hard work.

And that is a splendid lesson for all young people.  All great men, as
well as all true ants, have been hard workers. This is the only royal
road to success.

What Sir Joshua Reynolds said to his students is equally true when
applied to other professions: "You must be told again and again that
labour is the only price of solid fame, and that whatever your force of
genius may be, there is no easy method of becoming a good painter.
Nothing is denied to well-directed labour; nothing is to be obtained
without it."  Jesus Himself was a hard worker.  Go, learn of the ant,
and be wise.


                   II.--THE WISDOM OF SELF-RELIANCE.

Solomon adds that the ants carry on their labours without "guide,
overseer, or ruler," and that is strictly the case.  The ants are a
feeble people, but they are perfectly self-reliant.  The bees, for
instance, have a royal personage in their hive.  We call her the queen.
And thus we may speak of bees as we speak of ourselves, as living under
a monarchical government.  But the ants have no king or queen.  There is
no royal personage in their nest.  They are rather to be regarded as
staunch republicans, who carry on their labours without any "ruler,"
guided simply by that unerring instinct which imitates the actings of
reason.  The silly sheep may require a shepherd to take care of them,
but the sagacious ants can take care of themselves.

And all boys who are worth their salt must try to learn the same lesson.
They must learn to strike out a path for themselves, and not be content
to eat the bread of idleness.  They must work for the good of the whole
community by learning to stand on their own feet.  They must despise the
ignoble position of those who, having no mind of their own, are led like
a flock of sheep by the will of another.  They must think and act for
themselves if ever they are to rise to a position of influence.  In one
word, they must be self-reliant.  No doubt there is a sense in which we
must be dependent on the labours of others.  Every honest man is bound
to acknowledge the assistance which he has received from his parents,
his fellows, and his God.  But the two things are not opposed.  "These
two things, contradictory though they may seem, must go together--manly
dependence and manly independence, manly reliance and manly
self-reliance" (Wordsworth).  The two things stand or fall together.
Self-reliance is not selfishness, manly independence is not ignorant
braggadocio.  The ants toil for the common weal.  They rely on one
another.


          III.--THE WISDOM OF MAKING PROVISION FOR THE FUTURE.

"They prepare their meat in the summer."  This fact has been denied by
modern entomologists.  They have told us that ants are dormant in winter
(at least in Europe), and, therefore, stand in no need of food.  But, as
one reminds us, "we had need to be very sure of our facts when we
attempt to correct the Spirit of God" (Gosse).  It has been amply
ascertained that in the East and other warm countries where hibernation
is impossible, ants do store up for winter use.  It is even stated that
these harvesting ants bite off the radicle at the end of the seed to
prevent its germinating, and occasionally bring up their stores to the
surface to dry, when the tiny granary has been entered and soaked by the
rain.

It is at this point that the example of the ant is specially severe on
the sluggard. In crass idleness he would sleep even in the time of
harvest; but this little creature, the least of insects, avails herself
of every suitable opportunity, and gathers a supply of food sufficient
for her purposes.  "He that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he
that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame."  Let all boys
then lay up for the future.  Is it _knowledge_? Let them sow well at
school, that they may reap well in business.  Is it _character_? Let
them sow well in youth, that they may reap well in manhood.  Is it
_religion_? Let them sow well in time, that they may reap well in
eternity.  In all these connections let them be warned by these solemn
words, "The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold, therefore
shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing" (Prov. xx. 4).




                              *The Bear.*


"I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps."--Hos. xiii.
8.


However ferocious a bear may be, she is also capable of a large and
generous affection.  She is at once a fond mother, a constant friend
and, if one may so express it, a magnanimous foe.  Her devotion to her
young is proverbial.  She possesses the strongest maternal instincts,
and when to her easily roused ferocity the fury of these instincts is
added, it may be imagined what the violence of her attack will be.  Any
one who threatens the safety of her cubs does so at his peril.  The
constancy of her friendship is shown by the following curious case,
related by Brehm.  He tells us of a little boy who crept one night for
warmth and shelter into the cage of an extremely savage bear.  The
latter, instead of devouring the child, took him under its protection,
kept him warm with the heat of its body, and allowed him to return every
night to its cage.  By-and-by the poor boy died from smallpox, and the
bear, utterly disconsolate, henceforth refused all food, and soon
followed its little _protege_ to the grave.

But the bear is kind--_effusively_ kind, even to its enemies.  In the
manner of its attack it does not fell them to the ground with one blow
of its paw like the lion, nor seize them