Lesson 11: The Book of Wild Life
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
PASSAGE TO BE READ : Job xxxix. 19-25.
TEXT TO DE LEARNT : " Go to the ant, thou sluggard : consider her ways and be wise " (Prov. vi. 6).
HYMNS : " 0 Lord, how happy we should be " and " We plough the fields and scatter."
COLLECTS for Third Sunday after Easter and First Sunday after Epiphany.
Aim : To work out Froebel's thought : " The things of Nature form a more beautiful ladder between heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob." " From every object of Nature there is a way to God."
I. A MAKER IS KNOWN BY HIS WORK.
(a) A lady sat making notes on a piece of paper : " Mary is dirty and untidy " ; " Ellen is neat and industrious " " Jennie is idle and careless." Yet she had never seen the girls, nor had she been told anything about them. How could she know their character ? She had before her a pile of their needlework. She judged them by their work.
(b) We have never seen God, but we have seen a great deal of His work. From that we ought to be able to learn many things about Him. A fortnight ago we had a Nature Lesson on Plant Life. To-day we will look at the even more wonderful Living Creatures that He has made. For He Who said, " Consider the lilies," said also " Behold the Birds " (St. Matt. vi. 26).
(c) The Bible is full of lessons from living creatures. Our Lord loved to take an animal as His text : The sheep that got lost (St. Luke xv. 4) ; the sheep recognizing the shepherd's voice (St. John x. 3) ; the hen gathering her chickens under her wings (St. Luke xiii. 34) ; the eagles flocking round the carcass (St. Luke xvii. 37) ; the birds following the sower (St. Matt. xiii. 4), or swarming round the mustard bushes to pick the hot seeds (St. Matt. xiii. 32) ; the goats being separated from the sheep at night (St. Matt. xxv. 32).
(d) The last part of the Book of Job is almost all Nature Study. Job in his trouble criticized the way in which God governed the world. A whirlwind came up from the desert, and out of the storm-cloud a Voice began to ask Job questions. It was God, bidding him look at the earth and sea and stars and snow and stormy wind and lightning, and ask himself if he really thought he could have made them better ; bidding him study birds and animals, the lion, ostrich, eagle, hippopotamus (Behemoth), crocodile (Leviathan), and ask himself if he could rule them. Out of all these animals let us choose the one that we know best, and read the verses about the War Horse. Read Passage.
II. WHAT THE LIVING CREATURES TEACH US.
(a) Out of many lessons that they teach let us look at three. God has given to each its work. Life is meant to be busy. Look how busy everything is : building houses, e.g. the pains the spider takes to spin its web, the bird to build its nest. Have you ever seen a wasps' nest ? It is made of paper. Where did the paper come from ? The wasps made it. They bit off little bits of wood in their tiny mouths, chewed them into pulp such as paper-makers use ; then went back to fetch more. Finding and storing food, e.g. the bee gathering honey, the squirrel burying nuts, the hundreds of dead caterpillars stored in the wasps' nest as food for the babies. Apart from its own needs, each has its own definite piece of work to do for the world : e.g. the bee, without knowing it, is fertilizing the flowers by carrying pollen on its wings. If it ceased work, many kinds of flowers would become extinct. The earthworm makes it possible for things to grow. Left alone the ground would grow hard and stiff. Seeds would not sink. Roots would not be strong enough to force their way through. But the little worms are always at work making holes in the soil. These let the rain through, and form tunnels down which the baby roots can grow. The earth, being constantly turned over, gets freshened by sun and air. Never kill a worm. Without them we should starve. Are we half as useful ?
(b) God has made every creature perfectly fitted for its work. Compare noses. Some animals, like dogs and cats, have nostrils in front. These are the meat-eaters, who, when wild, have to hunt their prey. They want to smell what lies ahead and follow a trail. Others (horses, cows, deer) have nostrils at the side. These are the grass-eaters. When wild, they are not the hunters, but the hunted. They want to know what dangers are approaching from behind. A pig's nose has a gristly tip, so that when it smells a root, it can grub it up. The elephant, which has hardly any neck, is given its wonderful trunk-nose which can move in any direction. Compare ears. Here again the hunters' ears face forward (e.g. cats). The ears of the hunted face side¬ ways (e.g. deer). Rabbits in long grass can see only a few inches, but their long ears rise above the grass, and hear what is happening afar off. The hippopotamus' ears are at the top of his head, so that, when his body is under water, he can keep his ears above the surface, and hear what is happening. The bloodhound's ears are covered with flaps, which make him almost deaf, except when he cocks them-up, so that nothing may distract his attention from his nose when he is following a trail.
(c) God has taught the creatures to help one another. Lesson IV showed us how bees co-operate. A colony of swallows nested close to a falcon, a bird of prey which feeds on smaller birds. Yet they showed no fear of it. If ever it came near their nests, they united, and chased it away. Pelicans fish in bands. They fly out a little way to sea, form a half-circle, and then wade toward the shore, driving all the fish before them.
III. THE ANTS.
(a) Let us close, as we did a fortnight ago, with one definite example. What does our text say ? The Ants are a wonderful little people. Thousands of them live together in an underground nest, a network of tunnels and little rooms laboriously dug out many feet below the earth. Sometimes they raise an ant-hill to escape the damp. When you know a little about them, you will never kill one. They are the most highly civilized of all living creatures. They keep cows. There is a little insect called an aphis, which when stroked gives out a drop of sweet juice. The ants keep herds of them, which they feed and milk, and they store up the eggs of the aphis as carefully as their own. They also keep pets. In every nest there are one or two tiny beetles of no use to the ants except as playthings. Yet the ants feed them, and care for them most tenderly. Ants talk to one another, not with their tongues, but with their horns (antennae). They tap one another with little strokes, fast or slow, light or heavy, and so convey their meaning.
(b) Let us learn from them three lessons. The Bible tells us to ” go to the ant, consider her ways, and be wise." She teaches the Wisdom of Work. The ants beat even the bees in industry. Sir John Lubbock says, " I once watched an ant from six in the morning and she worked without stopping till a quarter to ten at night." Whenever you see an ant, it is always doing something, enlarging the nest, cleaning the nest, rearing the young, fetching food often from long distances. It sets us a splendid example. All great men have been hard workers. There is only one thing in the world that is absolutely good for nothing, and that is the sluggard ; so the wise man in the Book of Proverbs called the sluggard to look at the ant.
(c) And the ant teaches us the Wisdom of Self-Reliance. The wise man bids us notice that she does her work " having no guide, overseer or ruler " (Prov. vi. 7). The ants may be feeble, but they are perfectly self-reliant. We have all heard of the queen bee, but there is no queen ant. Sheep may require a shepherd, but ants can take care of themselves. Here again they set us an example. Some of us never do things well, unless there is someone to look after us, to tell us what to do, to keep us up to the mark. Let us try to do our best when we have " no overseer."
(d) The ant teaches us the wisdom of ,co-operation. We cannot learn this lesson too often. All ants do not do the same work. Some are builders, some scavengers, some food-hunters, some soldiers (a ring of sentries always guards each entry to the nests). A few with specially big heads act as door-keepers: they block each entrance with their heads when enemies are about. Some are nurses. We know how butterflies pass through four stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly. The ant has four stages too. First the egg ; then a little white legless grub, which the nurses feed and tend for six weeks. Then the grubs roll themselves into little cocoons. When the time comes, they cannot get out without help. The nurses have to pull them out, unfold their legs, teach them to walk. Then they are ants with eight years of life before them. In an ant-hill no one does everything, but everyone does something. Every one works for his neighbours, and his neighbours work for him, a splendid illustration of the text, " Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbour's good " (1 Cor. x. 24).
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
PASSAGE TO BE READ : Job xxxix. 19-25.
TEXT TO DE LEARNT : " Go to the ant, thou sluggard : consider her ways and be wise " (Prov. vi. 6).
HYMNS : " 0 Lord, how happy we should be " and " We plough the fields and scatter."
COLLECTS for Third Sunday after Easter and First Sunday after Epiphany.
Aim : To work out Froebel's thought : " The things of Nature form a more beautiful ladder between heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob." " From every object of Nature there is a way to God."
I. A MAKER IS KNOWN BY HIS WORK.
(a) A lady sat making notes on a piece of paper : " Mary is dirty and untidy " ; " Ellen is neat and industrious " " Jennie is idle and careless." Yet she had never seen the girls, nor had she been told anything about them. How could she know their character ? She had before her a pile of their needlework. She judged them by their work.
(b) We have never seen God, but we have seen a great deal of His work. From that we ought to be able to learn many things about Him. A fortnight ago we had a Nature Lesson on Plant Life. To-day we will look at the even more wonderful Living Creatures that He has made. For He Who said, " Consider the lilies," said also " Behold the Birds " (St. Matt. vi. 26).
(c) The Bible is full of lessons from living creatures. Our Lord loved to take an animal as His text : The sheep that got lost (St. Luke xv. 4) ; the sheep recognizing the shepherd's voice (St. John x. 3) ; the hen gathering her chickens under her wings (St. Luke xiii. 34) ; the eagles flocking round the carcass (St. Luke xvii. 37) ; the birds following the sower (St. Matt. xiii. 4), or swarming round the mustard bushes to pick the hot seeds (St. Matt. xiii. 32) ; the goats being separated from the sheep at night (St. Matt. xxv. 32).
(d) The last part of the Book of Job is almost all Nature Study. Job in his trouble criticized the way in which God governed the world. A whirlwind came up from the desert, and out of the storm-cloud a Voice began to ask Job questions. It was God, bidding him look at the earth and sea and stars and snow and stormy wind and lightning, and ask himself if he really thought he could have made them better ; bidding him study birds and animals, the lion, ostrich, eagle, hippopotamus (Behemoth), crocodile (Leviathan), and ask himself if he could rule them. Out of all these animals let us choose the one that we know best, and read the verses about the War Horse. Read Passage.
II. WHAT THE LIVING CREATURES TEACH US.
(a) Out of many lessons that they teach let us look at three. God has given to each its work. Life is meant to be busy. Look how busy everything is : building houses, e.g. the pains the spider takes to spin its web, the bird to build its nest. Have you ever seen a wasps' nest ? It is made of paper. Where did the paper come from ? The wasps made it. They bit off little bits of wood in their tiny mouths, chewed them into pulp such as paper-makers use ; then went back to fetch more. Finding and storing food, e.g. the bee gathering honey, the squirrel burying nuts, the hundreds of dead caterpillars stored in the wasps' nest as food for the babies. Apart from its own needs, each has its own definite piece of work to do for the world : e.g. the bee, without knowing it, is fertilizing the flowers by carrying pollen on its wings. If it ceased work, many kinds of flowers would become extinct. The earthworm makes it possible for things to grow. Left alone the ground would grow hard and stiff. Seeds would not sink. Roots would not be strong enough to force their way through. But the little worms are always at work making holes in the soil. These let the rain through, and form tunnels down which the baby roots can grow. The earth, being constantly turned over, gets freshened by sun and air. Never kill a worm. Without them we should starve. Are we half as useful ?
(b) God has made every creature perfectly fitted for its work. Compare noses. Some animals, like dogs and cats, have nostrils in front. These are the meat-eaters, who, when wild, have to hunt their prey. They want to smell what lies ahead and follow a trail. Others (horses, cows, deer) have nostrils at the side. These are the grass-eaters. When wild, they are not the hunters, but the hunted. They want to know what dangers are approaching from behind. A pig's nose has a gristly tip, so that when it smells a root, it can grub it up. The elephant, which has hardly any neck, is given its wonderful trunk-nose which can move in any direction. Compare ears. Here again the hunters' ears face forward (e.g. cats). The ears of the hunted face side¬ ways (e.g. deer). Rabbits in long grass can see only a few inches, but their long ears rise above the grass, and hear what is happening afar off. The hippopotamus' ears are at the top of his head, so that, when his body is under water, he can keep his ears above the surface, and hear what is happening. The bloodhound's ears are covered with flaps, which make him almost deaf, except when he cocks them-up, so that nothing may distract his attention from his nose when he is following a trail.
(c) God has taught the creatures to help one another. Lesson IV showed us how bees co-operate. A colony of swallows nested close to a falcon, a bird of prey which feeds on smaller birds. Yet they showed no fear of it. If ever it came near their nests, they united, and chased it away. Pelicans fish in bands. They fly out a little way to sea, form a half-circle, and then wade toward the shore, driving all the fish before them.
III. THE ANTS.
(a) Let us close, as we did a fortnight ago, with one definite example. What does our text say ? The Ants are a wonderful little people. Thousands of them live together in an underground nest, a network of tunnels and little rooms laboriously dug out many feet below the earth. Sometimes they raise an ant-hill to escape the damp. When you know a little about them, you will never kill one. They are the most highly civilized of all living creatures. They keep cows. There is a little insect called an aphis, which when stroked gives out a drop of sweet juice. The ants keep herds of them, which they feed and milk, and they store up the eggs of the aphis as carefully as their own. They also keep pets. In every nest there are one or two tiny beetles of no use to the ants except as playthings. Yet the ants feed them, and care for them most tenderly. Ants talk to one another, not with their tongues, but with their horns (antennae). They tap one another with little strokes, fast or slow, light or heavy, and so convey their meaning.
(b) Let us learn from them three lessons. The Bible tells us to ” go to the ant, consider her ways, and be wise." She teaches the Wisdom of Work. The ants beat even the bees in industry. Sir John Lubbock says, " I once watched an ant from six in the morning and she worked without stopping till a quarter to ten at night." Whenever you see an ant, it is always doing something, enlarging the nest, cleaning the nest, rearing the young, fetching food often from long distances. It sets us a splendid example. All great men have been hard workers. There is only one thing in the world that is absolutely good for nothing, and that is the sluggard ; so the wise man in the Book of Proverbs called the sluggard to look at the ant.
(c) And the ant teaches us the Wisdom of Self-Reliance. The wise man bids us notice that she does her work " having no guide, overseer or ruler " (Prov. vi. 7). The ants may be feeble, but they are perfectly self-reliant. We have all heard of the queen bee, but there is no queen ant. Sheep may require a shepherd, but ants can take care of themselves. Here again they set us an example. Some of us never do things well, unless there is someone to look after us, to tell us what to do, to keep us up to the mark. Let us try to do our best when we have " no overseer."
(d) The ant teaches us the wisdom of ,co-operation. We cannot learn this lesson too often. All ants do not do the same work. Some are builders, some scavengers, some food-hunters, some soldiers (a ring of sentries always guards each entry to the nests). A few with specially big heads act as door-keepers: they block each entrance with their heads when enemies are about. Some are nurses. We know how butterflies pass through four stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly. The ant has four stages too. First the egg ; then a little white legless grub, which the nurses feed and tend for six weeks. Then the grubs roll themselves into little cocoons. When the time comes, they cannot get out without help. The nurses have to pull them out, unfold their legs, teach them to walk. Then they are ants with eight years of life before them. In an ant-hill no one does everything, but everyone does something. Every one works for his neighbours, and his neighbours work for him, a splendid illustration of the text, " Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbour's good " (1 Cor. x. 24).
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