Eques

“ Ezekiel is a book of priceless value from our present point of view. Who can read without his heart thrilling of the living creatures that "had the likeness of man," and such a man—a man with four faces, with four wings, with a calf's feet, and a man's hands, sparkling like burnished brass, looking like burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps (Ezek. i., 5—13) . ”

“ My fancy pictured very vividly the five or six little Okes—that man certainly must have at least five children—the aunts, and sisters-in-law, and cousins; the eternal routine of afternoon tea and lawn-tennis; above all, it pictured Mrs. Oke, the bouncing, well-informed, model housekeeper, electioneering, charity-organising young lady, whom such an individual as Mr. Oke would regard in the light of a remarkable woman. ”

“ At the end of the temple opposite the door, high up on a framework of reeds, lay the shriveled remains of past kings and priests. The bodies were painted and decorated in a fearful manner, their claw-like fingers still grasping the bow and arrow. At their feet crouched the stuffed bodies of favorite hounds. Occupying the center of the room was the image of Okee, his frightful face painted in red and black stripes. Ropes of pearls as large as peas hung around his neck, and from the crown of his head stood up a tuft of eagle feathers dyed green and red. ”

“ Well, when do we act like sheep? When we act for the sake of the belly, or of our sex-organs, or at random, or in a filthy fashion, or without due consideration, to what level have we degenerated? To the level of sheep. ”

“ And the Lord called those men the seven first white ones, and commanded that they should bring before Him, beginning with the first star which led the way, all the stars whose privy members were like those of horses, and they brought them all before Him. 22. And He said to that man who wrote before Him, being one of those seven white ones, and said unto him: ‘Take those seventy shepherds to whom I delivered the sheep, and who taking them on their own authority slew more than I commanded them.’ 23. ”

“ It was the insignia of Egypt, of the Etruscans, was the sacred bird of the Hindoos, and of the Greeks, who connected him with Zeus, their supreme deity. With the Scandinavians the Eagle is the bird of wisdom. ”

“ The ox is symbolic of earthly things, for he is a husbandman. The sheep, of senseless and brutal things, because it is more servile than most of the creatures without reason. Of empty and unstable thoughts, the dove. ”

“ Nothing can be more singular than some of these representations, even of the Ox and Eagle, which bird is, however, splendidly represented in the fragment in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, whilst the Lion, in the Paris Gospels, is a really respectable delineation of the king of beasts. Some- times these symbols are represented wingless, but occasionally they are tetrapterous, according with the Vision of Ezekiel, as in the Book of Armagh, or are only furnished with a pair of wings. ”

“ And when those twelve sheep had grown, they gave up one of them to the asses, and those asses again gave up that sheep to the wolves, and that sheep grew up among the wolves. 14. And the Lord brought the eleven sheep to live with it and to pasture with it among the wolves: and they multiplied and became many flocks of sheep. 15. And the wolves began to fear them, and they oppressed them until they destroyed their little ones, and they cast their young into a river of much water: but those sheep began to cry aloud on account of their little ones, and to complain unto their Lord. ”

“ There were for sale oxen, and sheep, and doves, and there sat moneyers. The ox toils for his lord, and the teacher sells oxen in God's church, if he perform his Lord's tillage, that is, if he preach the gospel to those under his care, for earthly gains, and not for godly love. ”

“ They know his voice, so as to discern his mind by it, and to distinguish it from that of a stranger (for the ox knows his owner, Isa. i. 3) , and a stranger will they not follow, but, as suspecting some ill design, will flee from him, not knowing his voice, but that it is not the voice of their own shepherd. This is the parable; we have the key to it, Ezek. xxxiv. 31: You my flock are men, and I am your God.
2. Let us observe from this parable, (1.) That good men are fitly compared to sheep. Men, as creatures depending on their Creator, are called the sheep of his pasture. ”

“ The chapter my father read to us that night, I remember well, was out of the book of Ezekiel, in which the prophet dealt with the city of Tyrus, and denounced the judgments of the Lord on her pride [Pg 16] and luxury, on her ships of fir and cedar with sails of purple embroidery, on her mariners and men of war, on her merchandise of silver and brass, of horses and mules, of ebony and precious stones, and of honey and oil and wine and spices and white wool. ”

“ That the old pastors should cease and new ones begin.
In Ezekiel: “Wherefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I am above the shepherds; and I will require my sheep from their hands, and I will turn them away from feeding my sheep; and they shall feed them no more, and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, and I will feed them with judgment.” [1] In Jeremiah the Lord says: “And I will give you shepherds according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with the food of discipline.” ”

“ The ox, the eagle, the lion, the dove, each has a form suited to its needs, or correspondent to its own peculiar life. It follows that the higher and nobler the life, the more beautiful and perfect will be the form ”

“ Not much is to be told by an appearance, although physiognomists have sung otherwise. The egg of the eagle is less impressive than the egg of: the goose. And yet it hotly houses in its heart an' eagle. ”

“ Every one knows that expedient of the sleepless, the counting of sheep.
You lie quite still, you breathe regularly, you imagine sheep jumping over a gate, one after another, you count them quietly and slowly until you count yourself off through a fading string of phantom numbers to number Nod....
But sheep, alas! suggest an episcopal crook.
And presently a black sheep had got into the succession and was struggling violently with the crook about its leg, a hawk-nosed black sheep full of reproof, with disordered hair and a pointing finger. ”

“ The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of thy field; and thou shalt have goat’s milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maidens” (Prov. [Pg 225] xxvii. 23. 26, 27.) . We would particularly refer the reader to the thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel, where the prophet, reprimanding the rulers of Israel under the character of shepherds, makes some allusion to every circumstance connected with the care of sheep and goats. Language very similar is employed by our Saviour in John x. where he speaks of himself as “the good shepherd.” ”

“ There is a duck in the wether's belly, and an egg in the belly of the duck, and it is in the egg that my soul is.” The egg is crushed, and the giant falls down dead.838 In another Celtic tale, a sea beast has carried off a king's daughter, and an old smith declares that there is no way of killing the beast but one. ”

“ But, First, A lion excels man in strength and boldness, and is much more formidable; therefore the angels, who in this resemble them, put on the face of a lion. Secondly, An ox excels man in diligence, and patience, and painstaking, and an unwearied discharge of the work he has to do; therefore the angels, who are constantly employed in the service of God and the church, put on the face of an ox. Thirdly, An eagle excels man in quickness and piercingness of sight, and in soaring high ”

“ They flew on and on, they flew till they came to the eagle’s uncle. And the eagle said to the archer, “Go to my house, and when they ask thee, ‘Hast thou not seen our poor child?’ reply, ‘Give me the magic egg, and I’ll bring him before your eyes!’” So he went to the house, and there they said to him, “Hast thou heard of our poor child with thine ears, or seen him with thine eyes, and hast thou come hither willingly or unwillingly?”––And he answered, “I have come hither willingly!”––Then they asked, “Hast thou smelt out anything of our poor youngster? ”

“ Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 034:021 Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad; 034:022 therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. 034:023 I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 034:024 I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them; I, Yahweh, have spoken it. ”

“ By these plagues on the Egyptians God made a way for his own people to go forth like sheep, distinguishing between them and the Egyptians, as the shepherd divides between the sheep and the goats, having set his own mark on these sheep by the blood of the lamb sprinkled on their door-posts. ”

“ Proverbial saying—The black ox has trod on his foot, i.e. he has fallen into decay or adversity; it often implies old age: ‘She was a pretty wench . . now . . the black oxe hath trod on her foote’, Lyly, Sapho and Phao, iv. 2 (Venus) ; ‘When . . the blacke Oxe (shall) treade on their foote—who wil like of them in their age who loved none in their youth’, id., Euphues (ed. Arber, 55) ; ‘The black ox had not trod on his nor her foot’, Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, p. 17) ; ‘The black ox never trod on his foot, i.e. ”

“ A sparrow was once hovering over a sheep-fold, when he saw a great eagle swoop down upon a lamb and carry it off in his claws. Thereupon the sparrow clapped his wings and said, “I will do even as the eagle hath done;” ”

“ The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way.
1 Tim. VI, 11. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Matt. X, 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Psalm XXXVII, 11. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. ”

“ But we may not say, "An eagle is our national bird," "This is a rare kind of an eagle," or, "It is not worthy of the name of an eagle"; because in these sentences "eagle" is used as the name, not of a single bird, but of a class of birds, and includes in its meaning all the birds which belong to the class called "eagle." The sentences are equivalent to: "The kind of bird called 'eagle' is our national bird;" ”

“ Then we have got something to our purpose; a circumstance easily marked, which always belongs to the animal, under every variation of situation or treatment. But an ox is hoofed, and so is a sheep; we must distinguish still farther. ”

“ Do not the eagles seem to thee to be about the Body, when the Son of Man shall come in that Day with clouds of them that understand? When every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him? This, is the Body of which it has been said, ‘My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed.’ Round about this Body are the true eagles, who fly with spiritual wings. There likewise fly the eagles who believe that Jesus is come in the flesh. ”

“ The prophet Ezekiel (xxxiv. 3.) describes the bad shepherd as selfishly eating the flesh and clothing himself with the wool of the sheep, without tending them with due care and labor.
In the Suovetaurilia among the Romans a hog, a sheep, and a bull, their principal domestic animals, were sacrificed. A sheep was killed every day for the guards, who watched the tomb of Cyrus. (Arrian, vol. i. p. 438, Blancardi.) In the [Pg 291] Odyssey (ρ. 180-182.) a sacrifice is made and a feast prepared of sheep, goats, hogs, and a cow. Also in Od. v. 3. 250. sheep are sacrificed and furnish part of a feast. ”

“ And I looked at them and saw, and behold they all let out their privy members, like horses, and began to cover the cows of the oxen, and they all became pregnant and bare elephants, camels, and asses. 5. And all the oxen feared them and were affrighted at them, and began to bite with their teeth and to devour, and to gore with their horns. 6. And they began, moreover, to devour those oxen; and behold all the children of the earth began to tremble and quake before them and to flee from them. ”

“ According to this principle, the ox and the lion are only to be considered in reference to their physical strength, in virtue of which the ox amongst tame animals, the lion amongst wild beasts, take the first place, while man, through the power of his mind, asserts his supremacy over all earthly creatures. ”

“ Also you offer up and worship the heads of oxen and of wethers, and you dedicate gods mingled also of a goat and a man, and gods with the faces of dogs and lions. Do you not adore and feed Apis the ox, with the Egyptians? ”

“ The care he takes and the provision he makes for his sheep. The sheep hear his voice, when he speaks familiarly to them, when they come into the fold, as men now do to their dogs and horses; and, which is more, he calls his own sheep by name, so exact is the notice he takes of them, the account he keeps of them ”

“ We are told that a shepherd will know the actual faces of all the sheep in his flock, distinguishing each from each at a glance. I am curious to know if the Bishop of London knows even the few lost sheep that browse about Rotten Eow of an afternoon, and who are so familiar to us in Leech’s sketches. ”

“ And not only human beings, but gods and animals, stones and trees, natural and artificial objects, everybody and everything had its own soul or double. The doubles of oxen and sheep were the duplicates of the original oxen or sheep ”

“ As certain individuals are grouped by naturalists into species, so particular species, which in habits and general appearance resemble each other, are arranged under the head of genus. The horse, the ass, and the zebra are formed on nearly the same anatomical plan; they are therefore classed together, and designated the genus Equus, a term derived from the Latin word equus, a horse—that animal being regarded as the type, or perfect member of the group. Thus the horse, in the nomenclature of the naturalist, is termed Equus caballus ”