Let no one say that it lives a useless life. It is one of the most
useful animals we have. It vies with the swallow in destroying the
swarms of insects that infest the atmosphere. They divide the day of
twenty-four hours between them. The bat begins the work where the
swallow lays it down; and ruthlessly pursues the insect prey all through
the night. From dark to dawn, and sometimes far into the day, it does
yeoman service in this important connection. The present writer
remembers a pair of bats in Perthshire, which were found in company with
the swallows even at the hour of noon. It was the month of September,
and perhaps they felt they must now make haste in preparing for the
winter's hibernation. For the bat is not able, like the swallow, to
migrate to a warmer clime when the supply of insect food begins to fail.
It must find another way of spending the long months of the winter. It
must pass into a deep death-like slumber, from which it is awakened, as
the flowers in spring are awakened, by the returning life of the summer.
But the traces of a wise design are seen everywhere. The marks of a good
and faithful Creator are found through all His works. If one creature
has the power of migrating, another has the power of hibernating; and
thus even in the mode of existence pursued by a bat, there is abundant
evidence of the wisdom and goodness of God.
And how is the bat able to thread its way through the darkest caverns
where the sharpest eyes are rendered useless? It is not blind, like
Tibbie Dyster in "Alec Forbes"; and yet it might say, as she did when
congratulated on her fine spinning, "I wadna spin sae weel gin it warna
that the Almichty pat some sicht into the pints o' my fingers 'cause
there was nane left i' my een." The bat has indeed a marvellous power
of sight in "the pints o' its fingers." Prof. Mivart can only compare
the sensitiveness of its _touch_ to a state of inflammation; and it is
this extreme sensibility that enables them to direct their flight in
these dark caverns. This is another coign of vantage reached by the bat.
It is the only mammal that possesses wings, and these wings, in turn,
are the very perfection of the delicate sense of touch.
But we go back to the point from which we started, and say that, however
useful and wonderful the bat may be, it is not to be eaten as food or
offered in sacrifice. It is _unclean_. This, indeed, is a principle
which is full of gospel teaching. A thing may be good and useful in its
own place, and yet be quite unfit as an offering when we appear before
God. Good thoughts, kind words, and brave deeds are all needed. They
are all necessary for the adornment of our Christian character; but for
the forgiveness of our sins, and the reception of "so great salvation,"
there is no sacrifice which can be mentioned save one: "Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." To Jesus then must
every boy and girl look, saying in the language of the hymn--
"Just as I am, _without one plea_,
_But that Thy blood was shed for me,_
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come."
*The Eagle.*
"Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on
high?"--Job xxxix. 27.
Jehovah is answering Job out of the whirlwind. He brings before him a
grand panorama of external nature--the earth and sea, snow and hail, the
Pleiades and the lightning--the wild goat, the wild ass, the ostrich,
the hawk, and the eagle; and as the glorious pageant defiles before his
eyes, he forces him to face and answer the question: Shall mortal man be
more just than God? Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct
Him? He that reproveth God, let him answer. And Job's answer is all
that could be desired: "Behold, I am vile: what shall I answer Thee? I
will lay mine hand upon my mouth." The greatness of God in nature has
taught man his own utter insignificance.
Doth the eagle mount up at _thy_ command? No. All these pictures point
man to God. They combine to illustrate the mind and thought of Him who
formed them and cares for them. So that the conclusion of Ruskin is
more than justified that the universe is not a mirror that reflects to
proud self-love her own intelligence. It is a mirror that reflects to
the devout soul the attributes of God.