



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 with its teeth like the dog.
It _hugs_ them.  It embraces them with its powerful fore-limbs with a
great: show of affection, and continues the squeeze so long that the
poor wretched victims are suffocated. Bruin does nothing by halves.  The
advice of old Polonius is followed to the very letter:--

    "The friends thou hast and their adoption tried,
    Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel."


He _does_ grapple them.  He may give great attention to the friendships
of life, but he does not forget to _embrace_ his enemies.

With respect to the bear mentioned in the Bible, we may note three
points.


                             I.--ITS KIND.

This is not the common brown bear of Europe, nor the white polar bear of
the Arctic regions; but the yellowish-brown Syrian bear, which may still
be found in its native haunts around the wooded fastnesses of Hermon and
Lebanon.  It is shorter in limb and has smaller claws than its European
cousin; but its most striking peculiarity is its change of colour.  Like
many other animals, the Syrian bear changes its colour as it grows
older. "When a cub it is of a darkish brown, which becomes a light brown
as it approaches maturity.  But when it has attained its full growth it
becomes cream-, and each succeeding year seems to lighten its
coat, so that a very old bear is nearly as white as its relative of the
Arctic regions" (J. G. Wood).  Alas! the change which is produced by age
is not confined to _Ursus Syriacus_.  The boy, no less than the bear,
will yet experience that solemn transformation.  The blackest locks will
yet whiten with the frosts of age, for lustre, youth, and virility will
all alike perish.  But this change is only the outward symbol of what
ought to be an inward, spiritual fact.  If the locks whiten, so ought
the conscience, the soul, the heart. As youth passes into manhood and
manhood into age, the man within should "aye be gettin' whiter"; until
when the locks have grown grey in the service of righteousness, the
children may "rise up before the _hoary_ head, and honour the face of
the old man" (Lev. xix. 32).

    "Yes, childhood, mark the hoary head and rise--
    Stand on thy feet and give the honour due;
    That crown of glory points you to the skies,
    Like snow-capped mountains in the azure blue."


                             II.--ITS FOOD.

The bear, to begin with, is a strict vegetarian.  While he can find
abundance of vegetables and fruit he is little disposed to go far in
varying his means of subsistence. His teeth are formed for the purpose.
Unlike those of the lion or tiger, which have a scissor-blade
appearance, and are incapable of any but an up-and-down motion, the
teeth of the bear are true grinders or molars, and the hinge of the
lower jaw is so constructed that it can be worked from side to side, so
that the bear can actually _chew_ its food.

It is said to be very fond of strawberries--like some little boys we
know--and like the blackbird it can walk daintily along the rows and
pick out the ripest.  But if there be one thing more than any other that
throws the bear into an ecstasy of excitement it is the prospect of a
feast of honey.  A nest of ants is nothing in comparison.  The long nose
is thrust into the delicious comb, though it be stung and stung again by
the infuriated inhabitants.

It is not till other food fails that the bear becomes carnivorous.  But
then, driven by hunger, it will even descend into the lower pastures and
seize upon the goats and the sheep.  This habit is referred to by the
youthful David in 1 Samuel xvii. 33.  King Saul was trying to dissuade
him from matching himself against the gigantic Philistine; but David
answered: "Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion,
and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: and I went out after him,
and smote him, and delivered it out of his hand....  Thy servant slew
both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be
as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God."
And all the young people know the result. One smooth stone from the
brook was placed in David's sling, and yon huge mass of human arrogance
was hurled to the ground.  They who fight for Jehovah need never fear.
A stone cast in His name becomes a thunderbolt.


                          III.--ITS FEROCITY.

"Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his
folly" (Prov. xvii. 12).

The whelps themselves are not ferocious. Indeed, they are remarkably
stupid.  They are as confident as they are weak, and do not even try to
escape when the hunters come upon them.  The young water-fowl by the
river-side disappear in an instant if you happen to come upon them; but
the cubs of the bear, with a stupid simplicity, just allow themselves to
be caught and massacred.  They remind one of the lamb mentioned by the
poet:--

    "Pleased to the last they crop the flowery food,
    And lick the hand just raised to shed their blood."


But there is something far worse than this simplicity.  There is
brazen-faced irreverence and impudence.  When Elisha, the man of God,
was going up to Bethel, a crowd of young vagabonds came out of the
village and mocked the old man, and said: "Go up, thou bald head; go up,
thou bald head.  And two she-bears came rushing out of the wood, and
tare forty and two of them" (2 Kings ii. 24).  These were not little
children, but "young lads" (R.V. margin), who had begun to herd at
street corners, and to scoff and gibe at those who passed by.  And, in
our own day, society would be none the worse of a few she-bears to act
as a kind of police at all such corners.  They might help to rid the
streets of a good deal of juvenile profanity.  But alas! because this
Old Testament punishment does not fall on these young miscreants, the
evil, instead of becoming less, is in great danger of being largely
increased.  And yet, if boys only knew it, a far worse calamity has
already fallen.  They may not have been attacked by bears, but they
themselves have become bears--not growing fairer, nobler, whiter, as
they grow in years; but fouler, darker, meaner, with the awful increase
of sin--selling themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord.  Ah! let
every true lad beware as to the company he keeps.  "Evil company doth
corrupt good manners."  "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap;" and "the way of the ungodly shall perish."




                              *The Dove.*


"And He said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence."--John
ii. 16.


It is reported of St Francis of Ass