"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 Assisi, in the Middle Ages, that he
would sometimes go out and preach to the beasts and birds. He treated
them so kindly, both in the house and field, that they would draw near
without any sign of fear, and allow him to stroke and feed them with his
hand. In like manner, we may think of Jesus pitying the poor, dumb
beasts of burden, when He saw them, as we sometimes see them,
unmercifully treated by heartless drivers; or grieving at other times at
the frantic efforts of little birds beating against the bars of their
cage--those tiny songsters of the field and wood, which had been taken
by the snare of the fowler, and bereft of their liberty.
The incident before us is a case in point. Here, at the beginning of
His ministry, He made a whip of small cords and drove the traffickers
out of His Father's temple. Men, money-tables, oxen, were all swept
before His holy indignation. But there, in mid-air, the upraised whip
was arrested. _Jesus could not strike the meek and gentle doves_. There
they sat in their wicker baskets, with large eyes that were full of
tender pleading, and the raised whip was not allowed to fall. He could
only say to their keepers, "_Carry_ these things hence," for to the
dumb, lower animals, He was "moved with compassion."
It is a great and fitting lesson for the young. They who are kind to
their pets are not far from His Kingdom. "A righteous man regardeth the
life of his beast."
We ought to be like the dove in three ways.