meaning of these words, when I bring them direct into the lives of each
one of ourselves.

I. And, first, I would note the very striking and beautiful pictures
that are given in these verses.

There are three of them, on each of which I must touch briefly. 'As
birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.' The form of
the words in the original shows that it is the mother-bird that is
thought about. And the picture rises at once of her fluttering over the
nest, where the callow chickens are, unable to fly and to help
themselves. It is a kind of echo of the grand metaphor in the song that
is attributed to Moses, which speaks of the eagle fluttering over her
nest, and taking care of her young. Jerusalem was as a nest on which,
for long centuries, that infinite divine love had brooded. It was but a
poor brood that had been hatched out, but yet 'as birds flying' He had
watched over the city. Can you not almost see the mother-bird, made bold
by maternal love, swooping down upon the intruder that sought to rob the
nest, and spreading her broad pinion over the callow fledglings that lie
below? That is what God does with us. As I said, it is a poor brood that
is hatched out. That does not matter; still the Love bends down and
helps. Nobody but a prophet could have ventured on such a metaphor as
that, and nobody but Jesus Christ would have ventured to mend it and
say, 'As a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,' when there are
hawks in the sky. So He, in all the past ages, was the One that 'as
birds flying ... defended' His people, and would have gathered them
under His wings, only they would not.

Now, beautiful as this metaphor is, as it stands, it seems to me, like
some brilliant piece of colouring, to derive additional beauty from its