Uplifting Thoughts Suggested by 
Observing Nature. 
Last summer I heard a sermon by 
the Reverend Frederick Newport, re- 
tired Congregational Minister, on the 
thoughts suggested by an empty bird’s 
nest. I was spending several weeks in 
Camp Kineowatha of Wilton, Maine, 
and as is my custom, I accompanied 
several girls to church on Sunday. We 
can give only a few extracts from the 
address, as we have not room to pub- 
lish the entire sermon, which the min- 
ister had especially typewritten and at 
my request sent to me. The text is 
“The birds of the air have nests,” Mat- 
thew 8 , 20. He told us that God re- 
veals himself in the commonplace, cit- 
ing several examples, and then spoke 
as follows : 
“In the world of thought, we are very 
likely to find what we are looking for ; 
and so, if among the commonplace 
things and experiences of life, we are 
constantly looking for some revelation, 
or manifestation of the nature and the 
thought of our Heavenly Father, we 
are sure to be often rewarded by find- 
ing it. 
“One day, in one of my vacations, I 
looked for some shady nook, where na- 
ture was at its loveliest and best. I 
found it at a point where the little 
brook which crossed the pasture en- 
tered the woods. Tall trees partly 
shaded the spot. On either side of the 
brook were green grasses, ferns and 
mosses. The rippling water of the 
stream made sweet, gentle music. Busy 
insects seemed to regard it as a para- 
dise. In the earlier part of the season 
the robins had evidently been drawn 
thither by its quiet and seclusion, for, 
in a little spruce tree a few feet from 
the brook, where the branches grew out 
from the trunk not far from the ground, 
there was a nest, well built and well 
preserved, but it was empty. The bird 
family that had built it, and used it for 
a home, had gone and left it, simply as 
a common, ordinary thing, as a remi- 
niscence of bygone days, or as a means 
of revealing the God of the birds ; ac- 
cording to the human being who might 
happen to discover it. I regarded not 
only that beautiful little spot, that nat- 
ural summer retreat, with its varied 
forms of summer life and activity, as 
a sample of the work the God of na- 
ture can do, but particularly that empty 
nest, which I took from its place in the 
tree, in order to examine it carefully; 
that spoke to me specially of God, and 
brought to my mind some facts, some 
truths pertaining to the life of us hu- 
mans as well as that of the birds. I 
ask you to consider with me some of 
the simple suggestions of that little 
object in nature.” 
lie vividly portrayed the nest that 
he had taken from a spruce tree one 
August afternoon as a thoroughly built 
nest of good carpentry and masonry, 
and spoke in regard to instinct, con- 
cluding as follows: 
“No, we can say, it is not imitation, 
it is not education, it is not reason, of 
the kind which man possesses. It is a 
divine endowment, just such as the 
lower order of beings need, in order 
that they may care for themselves and 
their offspring, and perpetuate their 
species.” 
From the impressive and instructive 
lessons that he taught his audience we 
can find room to publish only short 
sentences : 
“If God did everything for human 
beings in the line of food, clothing and 
places of shelter, what kind of crea- 
tures should we be? Nothing better 
than the apes. Instead of providing the 
home-nest all complete for us, instead 
of having all our necessaries and lux- 
uries ready-made, He endows us with 
mental and physical power, and then 
He says to us, ‘Here is the world of 
nature; subdue it, direct it, adapt it to 
your various uses, and find yourselves 
infinitely the better and nobler for 
having had a share in thus satisfying 
your needs.’ ” 
