Article May 4, 1918 Issue

The Eagle's Nest

JEANETTE L. WEAKLEY

A Friend of the writer had been in the Rocky Mountains, and high on an almost insurmountable crag had discovered the nest of an eagle. His description of it was of peculiar interest to one who had become a student of Christian Science, and as she listened there came to her these words in Deuteronomy respecting Jacob, or Israel: "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him."

When the eagle builds her nest, she first lays upon its rocky surface thorns, jagged stones, and all manner of sharp things. Then she lines it thickly with wool and feathers, completely covering every sharp protrusion. Here are laid her eggs, and here her brood grows until the birdlings are old enough to fly. Then the mother bird stirs up the nest, pulling out every vestige of its soft lining, and the place which was once a bed of down becomes an uneasy perch, full of cutting edges. About her restless brood the mother now flutters and flies, first above and then beneath, her wings widespread; and as she flies she calls to her young to follow. As the tiny birds reach out, and finally spread their little wings, the mother's broad pinions are beneath them, so they will not fall. If they grow weary, they rest on the mother's wings until they are strong enough to try their own again, and so in due time the old nest is deserted.

How well the Bible writer knew the habits not only of the birds but of mankind. To most of us, when young, material existence is smooth and comparatively easy; the pleasures of sense seem to outweigh its pains, and we are satisfied with the world's ways of living. Then come to us the sharp experiences and piercing shafts of the world's sorrow, and one by one our soft resting places, our trusted medicines, our would-be balms, our healing lotions, prove of no avail. As we turn our weary eyes away from earth, we hear Love's tender call, "Come unto me," and we look, but almost fear to trust. There is no other way, and so we try, only to prove the truth of what our Leader says in Science and Health (p. 66), "Trials are proofs of God's care;" and we ever find Love's outstretched pinions underneath, always find, proved in our own experience, that divine Love alone did lead us.

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