Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-05-06
The Evils OF Anxious Forethought.

AiOAn 0Nhll lIOll dDDtblbt, lTOHl bUC va
rious malign feelings. If you take these
thousand little frets that thought breeds,
and that make you unhappy; if you lay
aside physical causes, and come to mental,
you will find that most of them are selfish,
and 80 are malign. And when man
broods anxiously, looking down into the
future, two things take place: first, he
loses the use of the correct instrument
of his mind-by this overheating and,
secondly, he brings his mind under the in.
ftuence Of these malign feelings, which
seem to rise up and take possession of
that great untrodden pasture.ground of
the future. His mind is brought insidi-
ously under the dominion of these things.
In critical time the man of the house.
hold goes to the window, and looks out,
and says: "Who can tell what those
signs mean on the horizon? Who can
tell what that banner meansP Who can
tell what armed host that is that is COM
ing|-And thousands ofmen say to Fear,
"Go, sit in the window and watch !" and
Fear, sitting in the soul's window, and
looking far down into the future, says: II
see something there" "What is it!"
says Avarite. "Loss of money-bank-
ruptcy-trouble is coming ~ 90 Lord
O Lordi Trouble In the future. 1t Is all
trouble. Man is born to sorrow as the
sparks fly upward. A few days, and full
of trouble. o troubled troubler' And
for days and weeks the man goes round
crying, "Troublc trouble ~ What is itY
Money. Nothing in the world but money.
1t is avarice that has made all that fuss
about the future all that dust 1t was
because 1t was not golden dust that the
man ives troubled.
Fear still sits in the window. "What
seest thou ?" says Vanity. "Whisperings
are abroad" says Fear. Men are point
ing at you--or they will as soon as you
come to point of observation" 90, my
good namep says the man. "All that 1
have done all that have laid up-what
will becoftie of thatS Where is my repu-
tation goingp What will become of lne
when lose it, and when folks turn away
from me? o, trouble, trouble lit is
comingp What is itS Fear is sitting in
the window of the soul, and looking into
the future, and interpreting the signs
thereof to the love Of appreciation in its
cosrsest and lowest condition.
Fear still sits looking into the future,
and Pride, coming up, says "What is it
that you see?" 81 see," says Fear, "your
castle robbed. see you topple down
from your eminence. see you under the
base mems feet. see you weakened. l
see you disesteemed, see your power
scattered and gone" 90, LORD what
world is this !" says Pride.
No, that man has not had particle Of
trouble. Fear sat in the window and
lied. And Pride cried, and Vanity cried,
and Avarice cried-and ought to cry.
Fear sat and told lies to them all. For
there was not one of those things, proba.
bly,, down there. Did Fear see them :?
Yes. But Fear has kaleidoscope in its
eye, and every time it turns 1t takes a new
form. 1t is filled with broken glass, and
it gives false pictures continually. Fear
docs not see right. 1t is forever seeing
wrong. And it is stimulated by other
feelings. Pride stimulates il and Vanity
stimulates it, and Lust stimulates it and
Love itself finds, sometimes, no better
business than to send Fear ON its bad er.
rand. For Love cries at the cradle, say.
ing, "Oh the child will die!" 1t will
not die. 1t will get well. And then you
will not be ashamed that you prophecied
that it would die. You put on mourning
in advance. "Where will my family be
Where will all my children goY What
will become of me ?" says Love in its
lower moods. Love without faith is as
bad as faith without love,
SO Fear sits in the window to torment
the lower form of all our good feelings
and all our malign feelings. And under
such circumstances how can a man dc
| anything? He has smoked glass before
his eyes when his feelings get before
them, and they are in morbid state.
How many times in summer has tha
u E,l1 80 sxxl,t -
storm, and which came rising, and open
| ing, and swinging through the air, gone
| by without having drop of rain in 1t
1t was wind cloud. And after it had al
disappeared, men took breath and said
1--WE need not have cooked up the hay il
| such hurry or, We need not have
under this tree" And how many time
have there been clouds rolled up in men,
heaven, which have apparently been full
of bolts and trouble, but which have no
had trouble in theml And when they
are gone, men forget to get any wisdom
| They do not say, "Next time l will dC
better" The next time they do just tn,
same thing. OF the thought that excited
them, that haunted them, that fevereC
them, that disturbed their sleep, setting
them whirling around in eddies o
thought, when they get past it, they say
cali that suffered for nothing" Blu
will you be any wiser for that experience
Probably not. You have the bad habit o
looking into the future with hot brain
and you will not cure yourself of it b,
any amount of fear.
Men get into a state, sometimes, il
which they rather want anxiety ant
trouble. AS poison becomes stimulants
so these corrosions and cares not unfre
quently become almost indispensable
There are many people who not only sui
fer, but seek suffering. They look a
everything on the dark side.
If you present the bright side TO them
they do not want to see that. They ar
in minor key, and they want everythin
to wall They not only are sick, but d
not want to get well. They do not war
to have people say TO them, You loo
better to-day than you did yesterday"
one says to them, II congratulate you o
having fewer pains" they resent it, an
say, | have not fewer pains. l neve
suffered so much in all my life" The
begin to have a morbid desire for symp
thy on account of trouble. They are vel
much like what are called "weeping
| uccs. luo1 uuNO u Wy hoNhWoiN " ~
and if you undertake to make the
. straight you break them. They are d
termined to be weeping,willows. The
are many people of whom it may be sa
that they are never happy unless they a
miserable.
8 Suppose everything should befal ms
2 that could happen to him, what would
matter9 How long would it be before
: would be out of reach OF suffering
. Where are the fathersY Where are q
!, Puritans that died the first winter alol
' the coast of Massachusetts, Their tro
e BILE was long since over. They have IL
I, gotten it unless now and then thoug
/ comes to raise higher strain of trump
: Where are the witnesses of God that p'
a shed in dungeons? Where are the me
that suffered cruelties rather than abs
i don their faith Where are the uncroW
IS ed kings that made the earth rich ? Wh'
s are they whose neck the halter found, a
r whose body was found by the rack ? I
Y whole creation has groaned and travail
T. over the sufferings of men who are M
Is where no suffering can get TO them
s Life is but handbreadth. Each yea
not so much as the bead that the beal
wears about her neck, Pearl though
70 be, or iron. IL soon passes away. 4