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Twilight And Dawn by Caroline Pridham

C >> Caroline Pridham >> Twilight And Dawn




There are only two kinds of elephants, the Asiatic and the African, the
latter having very large ears, and the former only being tamed; the African
elephant is hunted merely for the sake of its ivory tusks.

In a delightful story book, called _Friends in Fur and Feathers_, we had
all read a very interesting account of a young elephant called Kornegalle
Jack, which became exceedingly attached to his master. I wonder whether
you know it? If you do not, perhaps you might have the book for your next
birthday present, and read a great deal about elephants, as well as other
animals, whose names only we have time, to mention now.

But you will say, perhaps, that we have forgotten one kind of animal, for
we have not said a word about Pigs. Well, Piggie has not been forgotten;
but it seems difficult for him to find just his own place among the classes
of Mammalia, for he is like several of the quadrupeds in some particular,
but unlike any one of them altogether. You cannot put him with the
Ruminants, and yet he has cloven feet; he has the same number of teeth as
the horse, and his snout is rather like, in a small way, the trunk of the
elephant; then, in his wild state, he might almost be reckoned among the
beasts of prey, for the wild Boar, with its terrible tusks, is a most
formidable creature to encounter.

Of all the families of the Mammalia, that of Rats and Mice is the most
numerous. There are two kinds of rats, the black and the brown. I do not
know to which kind Willie's "Ratto" belongs, but I have heard many stories
of his clever tricksy ways, and of how well he knew his name, and obeyed
his master.

A rat, however clever, is not an animal which I should care to pet and
tame; but I know a very interesting story of one which seemed to be the
means of taming a poor man who was so wild and miserable that he cared for
nobody. This man had been transported for life, for some of his wicked
deeds, and he was so savage that even the companions who worked with him
were afraid of him, and hardly dared speak to him.

Once, as he was at work in the woods near Port Philip, felling trees, with
a heavy chain around him lest he should escape, a rat, chased by some
boys, ran towards him, and nestled inside his shirt. There the frightened
creature lay, in its place of refuge, close to that hard heart which cared
for no fellow-man; and as the poor lonely convict felt its fluttering, a
strange feeling came over him towards the trembling thing which had thus
trusted him. He asked leave to keep it as a pet, and from that time the rat
followed its protector everywhere, faithful and loving as a dog; and from
caring for his little rescued friend, the man who had been so savage and
hard, became more gentle, and no longer needed to be chained, and kept
almost as if he had been a wild beast. There is a sad ending to this story,
for at last the rat was killed by a bough falling upon it, and its death
caused such grief to its master that he never spoke again; but I do not
know his history to the very end, and I hope that even through seeing the
gratitude and faithfulness of one of the creatures whom God had made, he
may have learnt that the God against whom he had so hardened himself was
ready to forgive and to receive him, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who came "to seek and to save that which was lost."

We must not forget the Toothless animals, of which the Ant-eater is the
best known. They live upon insects, chiefly white ants, which they catch by
tearing open their houses with their strong claws, and then rolling their
long tongues among them. The tongue of the ant-eater is covered with a kind
of gum, to which the ants stick, and when there is room for not one more,
the living mouthful is swallowed.

Perhaps your cousins in Australia sometimes tell you about the great
Kangaroo, or "Old man," as they call him in that part of the world. By
means of his very long and powerful hind legs, and strong tail, he can leap
great distances, so rapidly as to outstrip a greyhound. There are many
species of kangaroos, but they are all much alike, and belong to the order
of Pouched animals; so called because instead of rearing her young in a
nest which she has made for them, the mother carries them in a bag. The
little creatures at their birth are more helpless than most young animals,
and this pouch is their home for some time, and their refuge in danger,
even after they have grown beyond the need of her constant care.

Australia has no animals like those of other parts of the world, except
the dog and the bat; but only one of these pouched animals--the Opossum of
America--is not found there. This creature is very like a monkey, and the
one best known in the southern states of America is about the size of a
cat, and very mischievous--as it sleeps during the day and prowls about at
night, in search of birds, eggs, and fruit. It has the power, which some
animals possess, of pretending to be dead, when in danger of being caught;
and thus it often escapes.

Seals and Whales must also be classed among the Mammalia, although they are
especially formed to live in the water.

Whales, though so much like fishes that they used to be classed with them,
have warm blood and do not breathe through gills; so they have to come
to the surface of the water every now and then, in order to get air.
By-and-by, when you read more, you will understand how it is that the
whale, though it breathes as you do, is able to stay under water as long as
half an hour at a time.

Now, at the end of this long chapter about the Mammalia, let us see what we
have been noticing about them.

They are put first in the Vertebrate Group, though we have spoken of the
birds and fishes before them, because they were made on the Fifth Day.

They are generally--for we must not forget the whale--covered with hair or
fur, and they feed their young with milk. First of the classes into which
the Mammalia are divided, we place the Four-handed creatures--apes and
monkeys.

Second, the Hand-winged; the bats.

Third, the Flesh-eaters; many of them beasts of prey of the Cat-kind and of
the Dog-kind.

Fourth, the Herbivora; animals which feed upon grasses.

Fifth, the Horse-tribe.

Sixth, the Ruminants; animals which chew the cud.

Seventh, Elephants.

Eighth, the Pig-kind, including the Hippopotamus which is believed to be
the creature called Behemoth.

Ninth, the Pouched animals.

Tenth, Seals, including the Walrus.

Eleventh, the Whale-tribe.

In saying "good-bye for the present" to this wide field of interest, shall
we make up our minds to observe for our own selves the animals which we see
every day, and to notice particularly how beautifully they are formed so as
to live in the way which is, as we say, suited to their nature; and also to
read some of the many interesting books on Natural History, where we shall
find pictures of the different "orders" of animals, and learn all sorts of
curious things about their habits?

God does not tell us what we do not need to know, just how he fed the
beasts of prey, and all the flesh-eating creatures which, in their present
state, live upon birds or animals which they catch alive; but God does not
say either that there was any death in the Garden of Eden, or that the
creatures which He had just made, each "after its kind," and all "very
good," preyed upon those weaker and smaller than themselves. It has been
found that it is possible _now_ for those beasts whose claws are fitted for
catching their prey--and their long sharp teeth for tearing to pieces what
they have caught--to live upon green things; and we know from the chapter
we have been reading together that God at the first gave them "every green
herb for meat."

Perhaps some of us have already read this beautiful poem in _Scattered
Seed_, but I will copy it for others who may not know it.

"GOD IS LOVE.

"All the earth, about us,
All the world above,
Tell the old sweet story,
Whisper, 'God is Love.'
Every wayside blossom
Lifts its little voice,
Every bright-eyed daisy
Bids our heart rejoice.

"Surging, seething torrent,
Bubbling, sparkling spring,
Hum of insect nature,
Birds upon the wing,
Evening's flush of beauty,
Morning's streaks of light,
Noonday's radiant glory,
All in praise unite.

"See His kind provision
Waving in the grain,
Shining in the sunbeams,
Falling in the rain;
Parching days of summer,
Cool the dewy fall,
Hoary frost of winter,
Sheltering snow o'er all.

"Swift o'er trackless region
Runs the lurid flash,
Sounds from hill to moorland,
Deep resounding crash,
Towering peak and cranny,
Eagles' dizzy height,
Dignity and splendour,
All reveal His might.

"Nature's varied voices
Chant the sweet refrain,
Echo o'er the mountain,
Linger on the plain,
Thunder in the ocean,
Whisper in the shell,
Murmur in the breezes,
Sighing in the dell.

"Shall our lips be silent?
Shall our lives be still?
Tune our hearts, O Father,
To perform Thy will;
Fill our souls with rapture,
Fill our hearts with praise,
Give us grace to follow
Gladly all our days."

M. A. E.




THE SIXTH DAY

THE CROWN OF GOD'S CREATION.


"_The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given
me life._"--JOB xxxiii. 4.

"_In Him we live, and move, and have our being ... for we are also His
offspring._"--ACTS xvii. 28.

"_I will praise Thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made._"--PSALM
cxxxix. 14.

"_Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body._"--1 COR.
vi. 20.


Before we speak of the last work of God upon the last of those wonderful
days of which we are told in the first chapter of the Bible, let us read
the verses about it, from the twenty-sixth to the end of that chapter, and
to the tenth verse of the next. And then let us read the eighth Psalm,
unless indeed you can repeat it, as my little scholars once could--and I
hope they have not forgotten it now.

I think the first thing we noticed as we read was, that after the verses
which speak of the beasts and creeping things which God made on the SIXTH
DAY, there is, as it were, a close to the history, and then a fresh
beginning.

We read, "And God saw that it was good." There is a full stop there; and
again we read--now for the eighth time--the three words, "And God said."

But this is not all; a very wonderful expression, which had not been used
in connection with any part of the work of God, is employed to tell us of
the creation of the man who was placed by God as the head of all that He
had made, the one to whom He gave dominion, after He had made the earth,
and brought it all into order.

God had said, "Let the waters bring forth.... Let the earth bring forth"
living creatures. "And God made the beast of the earth"; but before man was
created He said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

Of no other creature could it be said that he was made in the likeness of
God, and of no other do we read that he was "formed" by God "of the dust of
the ground," and that the Lord God "breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life"; then, and not till then, did man become a "living soul." The body
was made of earth, but the soul came immediately from God.

The more we learn about our own body, that wonderful and beautiful house in
which we live, the more we shall see, in what God thus formed from the dust
of the ground, to call forth our admiration; but the body of the first man,
although fashioned with such perfection in all its parts, did not _live_
until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

Let us never forget how great a difference God has put between man, about
whose creation He took thought, and who was made in His image, to whom
He has given speech, reason, and a deathless soul, and all the creatures
concerning which we read none of these things.

And now let us learn just a very little about the way in which God has
formed what His word speaks of as our "house" or "tent"--the dwelling-place
of the soul and spirit.

It would be strange indeed if we did not care to know something about our
own home; but our body is not only the house in which we live, it is also
the means, through those five senses--the eye, the ear, and the organs of
touch, taste, and smell--which have been so well called "the five gateways
of knowledge," by which we learn all that can be known by us of the world
outside us.

More than this, it is the wonderfully perfect instrument, and implicitly
obedient servant, by which all that we do is performed.

But the science that teaches us all that is known about our bodies is a
very difficult study, and there are many hard names to master, even at
the very outset. For instance, when we speak of the bony framework--that
skeleton which, as you know, belongs to us in common with the vertebrate
animals--there is a great deal which you would find very difficult to
remember.

Still, as I daresay you have found out, the more we learn, even of
difficult sciences, the more we _can_ learn, and little May (though, to
be sure, she is now four years older than she was when you first made her
acquaintance) _has_ learnt a good many of the hard words. She could show
you upon her own round arm, just where the bone which reaches from the
shoulder to the elbow begins and ends, and tell you its name, and the
names of the two bones which reach from the elbow to the wrist, and of the
wrist-bones, and of those which you can feel in the palm of your hand, and
the finger-bones.

But when you hear that you have more than two hundred bones in your body,
you will be inclined to agree with me that it would take both of us some
time to learn even their names, much more to know all about them.

The spine consists of twenty-four short bones, each with a little ring.
These vertebras are piled up one upon the other; for God has made our
bodies upright; our faces, are lifted upwards, and our eyes look straight
before us. These twenty-four little bones are closely and strongly bound
together, and between each one and its neighbour there is something so soft
and elastic that we can bend our heads, or move in any direction, without
the slightest strain or jar.

The head is most wonderfully built up, like an arch, of several bones
beautifully joined in a very strong and perfect way which carpenters call
"dove-tailing." We can understand why the head, which is so much exposed,
and is almost entirely occupied by the brain, should be so carefully
protected; for thought, memory, will, and what we can best express as
"consciousness of our being," all depend upon it.

Passing from head to foot, we find that our feet, which are not large, yet
must bear the weight of the body, are also made upon the arch-principle,
which has been found, like the hollow bones of the bird's wing, to combine
lightness and strength. The twenty-six bones are so fitted together that
this wonderful arch is quite elastic, as you can prove by moving your own
foot up and down.

The joints, where two bones which are to play upon each other come in
contact, as they do at the elbow or shoulder, are made in different ways.
The elbow only moves to and fro like a hinge; the hip and shoulder, like
a "ball and socket," move every way. You do not need to be told that each
kind of joint is found just where it is needed for the work it has to do;
for there is no mistaking or misplacing in God's workmanship, as there so
often is in the very best of _ours_.

I cannot at present tell you anything about the muscles, except that it is
by their means that we move arms, legs, head, eyes--every part of the body,
for bones cannot move of themselves, but are acted on by the muscles.

Nor can we learn much about the nerves, because the subject is very
difficult to understand. They come from the brain in the head, and from
that part of it which runs all down the backbone, through the little bony
rings of the vertebrae; and they are protected, because they are so very
delicate, and so precious to us, by a strong bony sheath. At first these
nerves are like coarse twine, but they divide and divide until they become
as fine as threads of white silk--almost as fine as the stronger part of a
spider's web--and they go all over the body, reaching to the very tips of
the fingers.

The first pair of nerves goes to the nose, for smell; the second to the
eye, for sight; and so on for hearing and taste. These are the nerves
called "sensory," which carry to the brain sensations from outside the
body. The "motor" nerves are those which take orders from the brain, to be
instantly obeyed by the muscles.

In the hand, which has twenty-seven bones--one more than the foot--and is
a more wonderful "tool" than any which God has given to the lower animals,
wonderful as _their_ tools are, the sense of touch is stronger than in any
other part of the body.

Suppose you put your fingers upon something very hot or very cold. "Quick
as thought," as we say, you draw them away again. But before you did so,
what had happened?

The nerves at the tip of your finger had sent a telegram straight home to
the brain, "Too hot!" or "Too cold!" and the brain had telegraphed back to
the fingers, "Keep out of the way of it!" whatever the hot or cold thing
may have been.

To think, even for a moment, of these lightning messages running backwards
and forwards, to and from the brain, gives us some little idea how very
wonderful the brain itself must be, and also how God has made one part of
the body to depend upon another.

Apart from the brain, the ear would be conscious of no sound, whether the
soft wash of the waves along the shore, or the mighty roll of the thunder
through the sky. On the other hand, none of these voices could reach the
brain if God had not "planted the ear," and formed it so perfectly to
receive the waves of sound which, striking upon its delicate little "drum,"
cause it to vibrate, and so are passed on by the nerve which takes messages
to the brain. For it is the brain which takes charge of every "impression"
conveyed to it by eye, ear, hand, nose, or palate; but _how_ these
impressions conveyed to the brain give rise to what we call "thoughts" and
"ideas"--this is one of the secret things which belong to God, and of which
He has not allowed the wisest man to say, "Oh yes, I understand all about
it!"

And there is another secret thing which cannot be explained. The heart has
been called "the fountain of life," because by it the blood, which is the
life of the body, is kept in continual motion, and sent to every part. How
little we think of it! But whether we are waking or sleeping, at work or at
rest, this busy fountain still goes on playing. We may hear the throb of
it, as it strikes against the chest, in its ceaseless working; and we may
count these regular "beats," and find that there are about seventy-five
of them every minute. It has been calculated that during an ordinarily
long life there are three thousand millions of beats without a break. But
what has set this fountain at work? and what keeps it going night and day
without any thought or care of ours, all our life long? Of all this it can
only be said, "We do not know; we cannot find out. God in His wisdom has so
ordered it."

Many years ago a doctor, who had observed very carefully, and thought much
about what he observed, found out that every time the heart beats, the
blood rushes from it into a great curved tube called an artery, and so
passes through tubes which, like the nerves, are constantly becoming finer
and finer, to every part of the body.

He also discovered that the blood takes its journey back again to the heart
by a different road: it does not return through these tubes, but through
softer ones, called veins. Thus far he could go, and the story of the
"circulation" of the blood is very interesting; but the _cause_ of the
heart's perpetual motion, and the blood's continuous flow, this he could
not discover.

Is it not wonderful to think that this rapid motion of the fountain within
us goes on so noiselessly that even a baby whose little heart has only just
begun to beat, is not disturbed by it, as he sleeps in his cradle?

To all the "higher animals" God has given both heart and brain. He has
also given them, in more or less degree, that mysterious sense of which we
have spoken before, and of which we have had so many proofs; a sense which
is not at all dependent upon reason or intellect, but is found in a less
degree in men than in animals to which reason has not been given.

We have before noticed that by instinct and memory all the wants of the
brute creation are met; God has given them all that they need to teach them
to live, each in its own life, after its kind, and to provide for their
young ones; but He has not given to the "beasts that perish" the power of,
as we sometimes say, "putting this and that together," nor, as far as we
know, of learning by experience; although it does seem as if the spiders,
in making their webs, improve by practice.

Instinct teaches every living thing to get its own food, choosing that
which is suited to itself, and rejecting that which is not. It teaches the
bird or the insect to seek out a fit place in which to deposit its eggs, or
to make a nest or "homie" for them, even before they are laid; and it can
teach even such a free creature as a bird to leave for a time its airy
life, and to sit patiently upon its eggs, even carefully turning them, as
if it knew that the life of the unfledged nursling within the shell-wall
depended upon its being kept warm.

Instinct leads the butterfly, as we have seen, to lay its eggs upon the
leaf of the very tree upon which the caterpillar, when hatched, will
feed--though its own food has been taken from flowers.

Instinct guides the swallow in its flight, as it leaves us in the autumn
for the shores of Africa; and the redwing on its way from its summer home
in the far North to winter in our warmer country--each arriving in its
appointed season.

[Illustration: THE SWALLOW.]

And so, as we study the habits of birds and beasts, we see how instinct
everywhere guides and directs them; but what this sense _is_ we cannot
tell. It has been well remarked, that all that can rightly be said of it
is, that it is "a guide which God, in His care for His creatures, has given
them, and caused them to obey."

We also noticed in reading these verses that until man was formed, there
was no lord over the Creation, but that to Adam God gave dominion over all;
nothing was expected, and he was owned as head, God Himself bringing the
creatures to him that they might receive their names from him, though Adam
himself was still under God, and every benefit with which the Creator
loaded him, only left him so much more bound to own His right over him.

As God has made us for Himself, He has given to every man, even the rudest
savage, something within him which reminds him of One to whom he of right
belongs; however far he may have got away from Him, or may have tried to
satisfy his conscience--that "eye of the soul"--by seeking to please some
idol-god which he has made for himself.

God has also given proof of His "eternal power and Godhead" by "the things
that are made"--His glorious works in Creation.

Listen to what a Red chief, far away in North America, said to a missionary
the other day:--

"I have long lost faith"--this was his confession--"in the old paganism.
They know I have not cared for the old religion. I have neglected it. And I
will tell you, missionary, why I have not believed in our old paganism for
a long time.

[Illustration: NORTH-AMERICAN INDIANS.]

"I hear God in the thunder, in the tempest, and in the storm; I see His
power in the lightning that shivers the trees into kindling-wood; I see His
goodness in giving us the moose, the reindeer, the beaver, and the bear;
I see His loving-kindness in giving us, when the south winds blow, the
ducks and geese; and when the snow and ice melt away, and our lakes and
rivers are open again, I see how He fills them with fish. I have watched
these things for years, and I see how every moon of the year He gives us
something; and He has so arranged it that, if we are only industrious and
careful, we can always have something to eat.

"So, thinking about these things which I had observed, I made up my
mind years ago that this Great Spirit--so kind and so watchful and so
loving--did not care for the beating of the conqueror's drum, or the
shaking of the rattle of the medicine man. So for years I have had no
religion.

"Missionary, what you have said to-day fills my heart, and satisfies my
longings. It is just what I have been expecting to hear about the Great
Spirit. I am glad you have come with this wonderful story; stay as long as
you can." [Footnote: From _By Canoe and Dog-Train_, p. 119.]

Nothing more than the fact that man was made, not like even an angel or
an archangel, but in the image of God, is needed to show how far beyond
and above every creature he was; and, as no creature owed so much to the
Creator, none was responsible to Him in the same way. No one had any right
over him except the One who had made him for Himself, his Creator, without
whom he would not have been.

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